Kāpiti Cr Sophie Handford, a member of the Wellington Region Climate Change Working Group, says we need to be taking ambitious and transformational action to reduce emissions and tackle the climate crisis.
Ms Handford says “I’d like to see us having the tough kōrero about how we respond and adapt to the coastal challenges apparent.”
New Zealand’s Dr Rod Carr has just completed a two day meeting of the United Nations high level expert group advising the UN secretary general Antonio Guterres on their progress.
“During the briefing with the 18 member expert group, the secretary general reminded our group of the importance of our work in assessing the credibility of non-state actor claims to be net zero or on a pathway to net zero,” Dr Carr says.
“Evidence is mounting every day that the scientists are right and have been right for decades.”
Eighty percent of the problem is caused by the combustion of fossil fuels such as coal, oil and fossil gas into the open air.
“Claims of net zero, if not robust and scientifically accurate, are doing great harm by misleading investors, consumers and regulators,” says Dr Carr.
Meanwhile, sea levels around Aotearoa have risen at a faster rate in recent decades compared with the first half of last century, Stats NZ says.
Future climate change projections indicate that sea levels will continue to rise. Rising sea levels affect coastal communities, infrastructure, coastal habitats, and biodiversity, Stats NZ says.
Sea levels rose faster over the last 60 years, 1961 to 2020, compared with the previous 60 years, 1901 to 1960, at four main sites with records dating back to the 1890s and 1900s: Auckland, Wellington, Lyttelton and Dunedin.
The rate of sea-level rise has doubled in the last 60 years, compared with the mean rate from when records first began through to 1960.
Between 1961 and 2020 the largest increase in the rate of annual mean sea-level rise of all the monitoring sites was observed in Wellington.
Ms Handford says there are practical steps we can take here now.
“Firstly, we can get the budgeted Paekākāriki seawall built and ensure a focus on meaningful and agile community dialogue through the process.
“Our community’s voice must be heard strongly through Takutai Kāpiti, a coastal adaptation project to help guide our response to the impacts of sea level rise and changing weather patterns on our environment, people and the way we behave.”
Ms Handford says the Community Assessment Panel (CAP), set up in relation to this project, has been tasked with delivering recommendations on coastal adaptation options for Council’s consideration.
