Most government departments and local councils say they have limited or no understanding of their vulnerability to the impacts of climate change, Marc Daalder reports
A report quietly released by the Ministry for the Environment shows most public bodies, including government departments, local councils and state-owned enterprises, are not prepared for the impacts of climate change.
That's despite a landmark study from the global authority on climate science, which found New Zealand could experience increases in flooding, fires, droughts, extreme heat and the melting of our remaining glaciers. Global sea levels are projected to continue to rise even if warming is halted at 1.5 degrees.
Nonetheless, more than half of government departments, councils, state services (including state-owned enterprises, Crown entities and public finance companies) and council-controlled organisations reported they had "limited or no understanding of [their] vulnerability to climate change impacts".
That was one of several findings about public sector preparedness for climate change. The survey was sent out to more than 400 public sector organisations and lifeline utilities in order to establish a baseline of preparedness ahead of the release of a National Adaptation Plan next year. While not all responded, the Ministry for the Environment said the sample was still representative.
The responses to the survey are a stark indicator that, broadly, the public sector is not prepared for the impacts of climate change.
"Climate change was first raised in the New Zealand Parliament 35 years ago. Our Government has had more than a generation to respond to this existential threat. So it’s very disappointing to learn that government agencies still lack the basic knowledge or guidance to prepare for worsening climate impacts," Greenpeace senior campaigner Amanda Larsson said.
"Local and central governments must thoroughly understand how the climate crisis affects their work, their environment and their communities, so they can make sound decisions for the future."
Climate Change Minister James Shaw said results of the report "clearly aren’t great, but that misses the point. Knowing where agencies have got to in terms of preparedness provides us with a baseline from which we can build".
"One of the more discomforting conclusions of Monday’s IPCC’s report is that some of the effects of climate change may now be unavoidable. This reaffirms the importance of knowing exactly how prepared we are and then developing a plan to get from where we are right now to where we need to be in the future."
While a majority of respondents said the impacts climate change will have on carrying out their functions "are acknowledged", most of these said they were "only partially understood or documented". None of the 21 central government departments that responded, for example, said expected impacts are "well understood and documented".
Outside of lifeline utilities, fewer than a fifth of organisations were able to say that this vulnerability was "well understood and integrated into decision-making processes". Lifeline utilities fared little better, with less than 30 percent saying their decisions were informed by a solid understanding of their susceptibility to climate impacts.
Just 36 percent of respondents said they had a plan or strategy to improve resilience in the face of climate change. This included the 8 percent of organisations (and just one central government department) which said that plan was specifically focused on climate change impacts. Another 35 percent said they were in the process of developing a plan or strategy.
Less than half of organisations said they require climate impacts and adaptation options to be considered in decision-making and two-thirds of those respondents said this applied only to some projects.
