Climate Change Commission chair presents to councils and TAMI
Climate Change Commission chair, Rod Carr, this week presented to a joint session of councils and Te Ao Mārama on the work of the commission and its future plans.
The meeting, which was attended by governance and staff from across Murihiku Southland, was an opportunity to hear from the Commission chair, chief executive and team about how it develops its advice for Government, how Southlanders can be involved and what’s on the horizon.
The presentation comes as Environment Southland recently announced the formation of a regional working group on climate change, which brings together the local councils and Te Ao Mārama, to work in partnership to advance a Regional Climate Change Strategy and collaborate on other climate change work.
The commission was set up in 2019 to provide independent advice to the Government of the day on a number of matters related to climate.
Dr Carr sees adaptation as one of the most challenging conversations that local and regional government will have to have because it is focused on local issues and communities directly affected by the changed climate.
“Parts of New Zealand will become windier, wetter and drier for longer which means the activities that used to be conducted at that place can no longer be conducted. Infrastructure that we’ve spent 100 years building will be at risk regularly, and we have to make decisions about how much we spend protecting it or moving it further out of harm’s way.”
Dr Carr told Southland councillors that while the world has built an amazing civilization based on combusting fossil fuels, it has a nasty side effect of releasing vast amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, with 80 per cent of current global greenhouse gas effects coming from these.
“We have to figure out how to preserve our energy-intensive civilization, if we can, whilst dramatically and quickly reducing the emissions.”
The commission’s initial work programme focused on what emissions budgets New Zealand should set and the plan to achieve those budgets.
Dr Carr also pointed out the opportunities Southland has when it comes to creating a sustainable carbon cycle.
“Biomass production has huge potential in Southland and could, for example, be used as an alternative to coal in electricity generation, which is already being explored in New Zealand.”
Environment Southland acting general manager strategy, policy and engagement Rachael Millar said having Dr Carr and his team visit and speak to councillors and staff from across Southland was very insightful as we move to tackle climate change in Murihiku Southland.
“I thank Rod for coming down to Southland and being so open in his presentation and response to questions. The insights we were able to obtain from him will be used as the regional climate change working group continues to collectively develop the regionial response to climate change.
“Dr Carr’s visit gave us the opportunity, as a group, to hear both the challenges and opportunities Southland will face as we begin to work in partnership to tackle climate change.”