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New Plymouth District Mayor Neil Holdom and Vice Mayor of Vilnius, Valdas Benkunskas.
There is 17,000 kilometers between Taranaki and the Republic of Lithuania, but the European Union is bringing the two closer together.
A five-member delegation from the Baltic country’s capital, Vilnius, is in New Plymouth this week as part of a city-to-city collaboration on sustainable development and reducing climate emissions.
With Taranaki set to become a low-emission economy by 2050, a European Union statement described the two cities as leaders in climate adaptation and energy transition.
New Plymouth also wanted to learn from Vilinius about making buildings energy efficient, the statement said.
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Valdas Benkunskas, 37, deputy mayor of Vilnius, said the EU had linked his city to New Plymouth, although it was “not common to partner with cities from that far”.
“But the world is global,” he added, after meeting at the Plymouth Hotel on Thursday.
Benkunskas said the recent free trade agreement between New Zealand and the EU shows that “cooperation between Europe, the European Union and New Zealand is developing”.
New Plymouth is the first city in New Zealand to receive a delegation under the EU-funded program for international urban and regional cooperation.
Benkunskas said: “the problems we have in Europe, in Lithuania, and the problems here are pretty much the same”.
This included the transition from fossil fuels to solar and hydrogen, which New Zealand is “a few steps ahead of”.
He added: “Lithuania does not have its own fossil fuels. We import oil and gas from other countries and are trying to stop that.”
This would benefit the environment and “could make us independent from other countries, especially from Russia.
“We are not currently using Russian gas and oil. We stopped because of the whole situation in Ukraine.
“After World War II, we thought we would forget such things. It affects us very much, because everything is happening in our neighborhood.”
Several meetings took place online before the Lithuanian group flew there to visit the largest solar farm in the country, in Kapuni in South Taranaki, and the Kapuni Natural Gas Field, Hiringa Energy, Port Taranaki, First Gas and the Ara Aké energy development center. .
But their journey, which ends on Saturday, did not go smoothly and they ended up being stuck at Adelaide Airport for 12 hours.
After arriving in Auckland on Monday, they found their flight to New Plymouth was full, so they had to drive to Taranaki.
Although they arrived after 11pm, they were still up and ready to begin their travel schedule at 8am on Tuesday.
Jacqueline Baker, acting chief executive of the New Plymouth District Council, said it was good to finally meet Lithuanian deputies in person.
“As the energy capital of the world, I think it’s a great opportunity to learn from them, and we have a good expertise here that we can share with them.”
New Plymouth District Mayor Neil Holdom said he welcomed the opportunity to learn more about the innovations being used on the other side of the world.
“Our regions have similar economies based on agriculture and goals to support efficient economic transitions to a low-carbon future.”