From now till October 11th 2025 it’s your chance to choose leaders across Aotearoa who will fight for a climate-forward future!
Local councils make decisions that impact climate action closest to home – our communities. From urban planning and transport, to green spaces and climate resilience.
To help get you moving these local elections we’re running our Stoke the Vote Strava challenge, giving you the chance to win some epic The North Face prizes! Any eligible voters across NZ can get involved, all you need to do is follow the link below for the details…
The first step to voting is making sure you get informed. So we’ve put a list of resources together to help you do just that. This included reaching out directly to candidates across Aotearoa so you can hear straight from them on climate related topics that affect us all.
Candidate Responses to our survey:
POW reached out to the candidates from CCC, ECAN, SELWYN, ORC & QLDC to ask about their opinion on climate change, public transport, renewable energies, sustainable housing and tourism. Follow the link below to see the people who got back to us and what they said:
We know this is just a starting point for your research into the candidates in your area (limited by those who responded) – but a great way to get further insight into those who did!
To expand on this we’ve also gathered a list of other great organisations and platforms to help you gain further insight below…
Other Resources:
- Policy.nz (Nationwide) | Provides a comprehensive resource of candidates nationwide – although many still have not completed their profiles, so keep checking in. You can look through candidates for mayor, regional and local councils as well as local boards; and choose categories that are important to you i.e. climate change, recreation, and transport etc.
- Gen Zero (Nationwide) | Has created climate scorecards for candidates across the country that marks them on categories of: transport, housing, equity, economic justice, environment and Te Tirirti. Many have not yet responded (or chose not to) but it is a great overview for those that have!
- Bike Auckland (Auckland) | Have a list of candidates who have taken the Bikeable Auckland Pledge, plus some other info on mayoral candidates and their support for climate action including active and public transport.
- The Future is Rail (Nationwide) | Have been gathering info about candidates who are pro public transport (including rail) in all areas of NZ.
- Electrify Wanaka (Wānaka) | Have interviewed Wanaka community board members and Mayoral candidates about their position on electrification of the region which you can read.
- Lightfoot Initiative (Queenstown) | Has questioned QLDC Mayoral candidates about transport in the district which you can read all about.
- Climate Action (Christchurch) | Have surveyed Canterbury and Christchurch City Council candidates, with a specific lens of urgency and science. You can read the questions and all the candidate answers in the blog.
- Rewiring Aotearoa (Nationwide) | Have got some great resources plus an easy email tool to help you generate questions to ask your local candidates too.
- Crux (Otago) | Has many stories featuring interviews with candidates from the QLDC, CODC and ORC area, although not with a climate lens, but still great to get a feel for them.
