Vehicles claimed by floodwaters at Whakapara in Northland. Photo / Jay's Photography
Vehicles claimed by floodwaters at Whakapara in Northland. Photo / Jay's Photography
EDITORIAL:
National MP Maureen Pugh probably won’t be the last person in the world to voice doubts about the human contribution to climate change.
However, she soon pulled off a “managed retreat” after a chat with her party leader Christopher Luxon.
Local territorial authorities have been having “managed retreat” conversationsfor some years in which human causation is taken as a given as the scientific consensus is too conclusive to waste any more time quibbling.
These briefings are often under public-excluded restrictions due to the effect disclosures might have on property values. The Ministry for the Environment estimates 750,000 New Zealanders, and 500,000 buildings worth more than $145 billion are near rivers and in coastal areas already exposed to extreme flooding.
Another reason for the discreet conversations is that there are also a number of major urban centres, taonga and sites of cultural importance at risk.
However, dramatic and tragic scenes from cyclones Hale and Gabrielle in recent weeks have brought the topic into open discourse.
We now know through hard-learned lessons there are several ways to respond to the rising risks of extreme weather events. We can adapt to climate impacts by attempting to protect ourselves, with sea walls as an example. We can accommodate the change with measures such as raising properties or rebuilding more resiliently. Or we can move away from the riskiest locations.
Managed retreat identifies areas deemed to be of intolerable risk and reduces or eliminates exposure to extreme weather events. It enables people to relocate their houses, activities, and sites of cultural significance away from at-risk areas within a planned period.
The brutal lesson from the former riverbed of Esk Valley and from the volatile slopes of Auckland’s west coast is that some locations are fatally prone to the rising likelihood of cyclones.
Landslips tumble onto homes at Muriwai. Photo / George Heard
As mentioned in yesterday’s editorial, we are in a La Niña phase, providing vim to the breeding ground for many of the cyclones rising from the Coral Sea near Vanuatu and New Caledonia that historically, smite New Zealand.
Climate scientists believe the number of ex-tropical cyclones affecting New Zealand might decline but expect the events to be more severe as the planet continues to warm. This means higher category cyclones, stronger winds, heavier rain, and more wind damage, flooding, and storm surges.
By the end of this year, the Government intends to introduce a Climate Adaptation Bill, setting out the managed retreat framework. This will be rolled out following a review of local authorities who have, sometimes in isolation, been grappling with the challenges of climate change impacts.
Local territorial authorities have had varied results in dealing with the rise of floodwater events, as we have recently seen in Westport, Hawke’s Bay, and Auckland.
The town of Westport on the West Coast was completely flooded in July 2021 with many residents forced to leave their homes. Photo / George Heard
In the months ahead, some may cite the passage of the Climate Adaptation Bill as further evidence of the Government’s ideological obsession with centralised control, or even as a power grab.
Up to this point, local government has been the frontline for climate change. It’s time to scale up our managed retreat on a national scale.
