It establishes a new structure on how Wellington can address a trio of socioecological crises. But what is missing?
Windbag is Spinoff’s Wellington Issues column, written by Wellington’s editor Joel Macmanus. Sign up for Windbag Newsletter to receive columns earlier.
My theory of the election of the local body of 2022 was that most voters felt that the city was in an evil. Both the holder, Andy Foster and his challenger Paul Eagle offered Milquetoast half-sidelines, while Tory Whanau launched a new identity for the city. Voters who could otherwise have been skeptical about green ideas were willing to vote for Whanau because they wanted something, anything, to shake the status quo.
This surprise victory gave Wellington City a green mayor with a majority in operation at the board table. The following year, in the 2023 general elections, the green candidates beat the voters of Wellington Central and Rongotai, and the green led the party’s vote in both seats. The greens are now the dominant party in Wellington. This is the first time the party has been in this position in any city and comes with new and uncomfortable challenges.
Greens are used to being a minority political movement that allows the luxury of idealism. Whether in parliament or advice, green politicians have been able to choose some pet issues to press and do not need to worry about being in charge. The party’s official manifesto is more an expression of values than a government theory.
The party has larger ambitions now. When he was appointed co-leader, Chlöe Swarbrick said he wanted the greens to go beyond work and become the largest party of a government. Wellington is the first party test to show if he is capable of large thinking necessary to lead.
A newly managed book tries to do just that. Transitions in Action: An Urban and Regional Guide to Te Upoko The Te Ika Wellington of Amanda Yates, Gradon Diprosis, Kelly Dombroski and Thomas Nash, proposes a transition model to how Wellington can address socialcological crises, climate change, biodiversity loss and social skill. (A book PDF is available here.)
For the author’s credit, they simply do not skip 30 years for an idealized green economy. They try to fight with the here and now describe how this view comes true. They base their theories on the good compass -Urban Ngā tohu Mauri Ora, developed by Yates. The compass consists of five closed rings, starting with staff and expanding out to the local and global: regenerative buildings, connected communities, regenerative circular economies, zero carbon energy and regenerative ecology.
The transitions in action were financed mainly through the construction of better houses, towns and cities of the national scientific challenge. It is not explicitly political (one of the authors, Thomas Nash, is a Green Party regional advisor, although this research was done in his ability as a Massey University social entrepreneur in residence), although his ideas clearly appeal to Greens. Green parliamentarian Tamatha Paul and Green Regional Councilman Yadana saw the two spoke at the release of the book.
Most of the book are short profiles of 32 projects, which the authors use as illustrative examples of their vision. “These are the types of initiatives, projects, organizations, companies and people that will fill the gaps between the path that – such as region and country – are currently, as well as the path we need to follow to offer a more resilient future,” they write. Projects include Metlink Decarbonizing the bus fleet, Hiko providing subsidized e-bikes in Wainuiomata and the new Victoria University of Wellington, Ngā Mokopuna, a “living building” with a positive carbon net impact.
The greatest weakness of the book is one that can be applied to environmental movement more broadly: it does not prioritize the truly important above the merely good. This is a very light criticism, considering that the book was never intended to be representative – at launch, Dombroski acknowledged that there was no real formula for deciding which projects to profile; It was mainly a collection of things that the authors were aware and the people they knew.
The most blatant hole is how much the book has a view to technology. The only highlighted companies are the electrical initialization of Moto FTN, the car service of car and the hoskins solar panel supplier. The authors devoted so much space to the profile of three community gardens. These are wonderful projects for enthusiasts, but the idea that urban agriculture is a scalable way to feed a city at any time in the near future is naive at best.
Wellington has several promising climate technology companies that can play a significant role in the treatment of climate change. Wellington City Council has done a good amount of work in the technological space, mainly through Wellingtonnz and its subsidiary Creativehq. OpenStar is trying to develop viable nuclear fusion energy, BSPKL produces membranes that make green hydrogen cheaper to manufacture, the Hot Lime Labs creates clean CO2 for commercial greenhouses. Even technology companies that are not directly related to emission reduction are still incredibly important to a climate -friendly city because they produce high value and carbon export.
Left politicians have never had a natural relationship with the capitalist side of technology, but the green are better positioned than the work to enjoy the narrative. If they will be Wellington’s main party going forward, green people need to find a better way to work and defend the city’s largest growing industry.
