Report looks at climate change effect
At our GWRC environment committee last week we received a paper specifically reporting back on the environment of the Ka¯ piti Coast from the regional council’s perspective.
Tomorrow I’ll attend KCDC’s council meeting to talk to that paper, having circulated it to councillors ahead of the meeting.
I’ll share some of the information, and hopefully you can read the entire paper (39 pages) at some point.
Of course climate change is undoubtedly the biggest environmental challenge we face and will affect everyone in the region.
By 2090 the Ka¯ piti Coast area is expected to be 1-2.7 degrees warmer. There will be more rainfall (up to 10 per cent increase annually), with an even greater increase in extreme rainfall events, which are projected to become more extreme and more common.
Westerly storms coming from the Tasman Sea will get significantly worse, dumping heavier rain and stronger winds. The combined effect of more rainfall and increased winds will significantly increase the risk of flooding and slips. Sea level rise will aggravate the problem in coastal areas, drastically increasing the risk of severe inundation.
Indeed the biggest threat to the coast is the combined effects of increased storms, high tides and sea level rise. The IPCC projections predict a sea level rise between 36cm and 98cm by 2100. However, the latest research now shows this prediction to be conservative. Taking into account the instability of the Antarctic ice sheet, these figures increase to between 68cm and 1.75m.
These projections are based on a range of different climate change scenarios, and while some of the effects of climate change are now inevitable, it is possible for the global community to avoid the worst impacts of climate change by rapidly reducing emissions over the coming years.
What are we doing about it? One of our first responses was to develop the climate change strategy, which aligns and coordinates climate change actions across GWRC’s responsibilities and operations, and ensures consideration of climate change is a core component of our decision making.
Alongside the work we are doing to reduce our own emissions and influence emissions reductions across the region, we are also focusing on better understanding the implications of climate change impacts.
The NIWA report Wellington Region climate change projections and impacts (available at www.gw.govt.nz/climatechange) and other studies we have commissioned have contributed significantly to that understanding. These also help inform stakeholders such as KCDC as they work with communities to understand and decide how best to respond to the challenges posed by climate change.
For the Ka¯ piti Coast, the most important considerations are sea walls and the relocation of infrastructure from at risk areas. Through the recently created Wellington Region Climate Change Working Group, which involves all territorial authorities in the region, we have been holding workshops with councillors, stakeholders and experts in order to understand the risks and discover joint strategies that will make the coastal area more resilient to the impacts of climate change.
We have also been working internally to discuss adaptation and mitigation strategies for the coast. For example, a recent workshop at Queen Elizabeth Park with park managers discussed the concept that ‘Parks are a natural solution to climate change’, highlighting their role in increasing our resilience and sequestering CO2. We also discussed (for Queen Elizabeth Park) which types of infrastructure will need to be relocated away from the sea and how this could be done.