We take issue with the narrow lens the Climate Adaptation Framework is taking, namely the focus on weather-related concerns. Furthermore, health and well-being is often given little (if any) consideration when designing solutions for climate adaptation other than in the protection of health service facilities. This is a significant oversight due to each climate risk having health and well-being implications as part of the cascading risk profile. We highlight that the wider health sector has recently created climate change scenarios in line with XRB Climate Standards. The best way to minimise the long-term costs relating to adapting to the physical risks of climate change is to continue rapid and significant investment in climate change mitigation.

OraTaiao's full submission to the Finance and Expenditure Committee, prepared by Dr. Dermot Coffey and Vicktoria Blake, is available here.

We strongly support bringing emissions from international shipping and aviation into our existing climate response framework. Incorporating international aviation emissions into our existing systems would allow the tourist industry to pivot with support to a post-fossil fuel world. We resist efforts to protect the status quo, namely, the international shipping industry not paying its fair share for the climate damage it causes.

OraTaiao's full submission to He Pou a Rangi The Climate Change Commission, prepared by Dr Dermot Coffey, is available here.

We strongly support strengthening our 2050 targets, acknowledging the significant health gains associated with well-designed climate action and the necessary deepening of such action that global equity demands. We call for swifter and more ambitious cuts in our short-lived and long-lived gases. This is in recognition that the window for remaining under average warming of 1.5˚C is much smaller and closing. The risk of crossing irreversible climate tipping points should not be underestimated, and these need to be part of any decision on the rapidity of biogenic methane cuts.

OraTaiao's full submission to He Pou a Rangi The Climate Change Commission, prepared by Dr Dermot Coffey, is available here.

Robust legislation governing land use and environmental pollution is vital for safeguarding people’s lives and their health. It is essential that changes to the existing legislation are an improvement on the status quo, rather than the dangerous and retrograde step in environmental governance for public health that the Fast-track Approvals Bill represents. The proposed Bill risks increasing public health disasters by bypassing meaningful environmental health safeguards, allowing Ministers to approve projects without considering the serious risks to people's safety, health, or to their fundamental human rights. We strongly recommend this Bill is rejected in its entirety.

OraTaiao's full submission to the Environment Select Committee, prepared by Dermot Coffey and Summer Wright, is available here.

The revised Government Policy Statement on Land Transport 2024 (GPS2024) is a throwback to a mid-20th century mentality in which the car is king and other modes are neglected to the point of death. It represents an absolute failure from the government to protect New Zealander’s futures. In short, from a health, equity and climate perspective, it is an utter disaster which represents an assault on the health and wellbeing of the people of New Zealand. 

OraTaiao's full submission to Te Manatū Waka (Ministry of Transport), prepared by Dr Dermot Coffey, is available here.

Uncertainty about the future of safe and healthy transport options in Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland has increased since the election. Opportunities for formal submissions have been restricted, as consultation on transport funding and priorities has been replaced by edicts from agencies and politicians such Waka Kotahi, Transport Minister Simeon Brown and Auckland Mayor Wayne Brown.

Regarding work to create safer pedestrian crossings in the city, negative comments from both the Transport Minister and the Mayor have cited an article in the NZ Herald which contained inaccuracies and was later corrected. 

In the absence of a consultation request, OraTaiao has taken the step of writing to the Mayor to provide accurate information about raised pedestrian crossings. Our letter from Co-convenors Dr Dermot Coffey and Summer Wright is available here. 

New Zealand's current commitment to cut gross domestic emissions is a mere fraction of what’s needed from us, pressure to cut all gases much faster is highly likely, and New Zealand simply can’t afford to shield any sector from reality. The easiest path for the transport sector is for GPS2024 to rapidly eliminate climate pollution and ensure the infrastructure needed for net zero much closer to 2030 than 2050, with negative emissions soon after. 

‘Rapidly reducing emissions’ must be the top strategic priority in GPS2024. The second strategic priority is ensuring ‘resilience’. The third strategic priority is ‘health and safety’, as the transport sector has a big influence on the health of New Zealanders. 

The other three priorities must be considered in the context of increasingly constrained capacity to emit, while ensuring Tiriti o Waitangi, justice, inclusive and equitable access are cross-cutting themes across all six strategic priorities. 

‘Rapidly reducing emissions’ which OraTaiao expects must be the top strategic priority in GPS2024, means a major shift in funding across activity classes and years, to frontload investment in public transport, cycling and walking activity classes. This is the chance to accelerate the necessary shift from predominantly privately owned vehicle transport, to shared transport, walking and cycling.

OraTaiao's full submission to Te Manatū Waka (Ministry of Transport), prepared by Liz Springford, Dr Scott Metcalfe, Dr James Hamill and Summer Wright, is available here. 

Photo by Dan Freeman on Unsplash

The Government proposes the deferral of farm-level agricultural emissions reporting and pricing by two years, from 1 January 2024 to 1 January 2026.

OraTaiao is strongly opposed. 

We understand that the challenge posed by the climate crisis is to slow, then stop, then remove the flow of dangerous gases thickening the blanket of climate pollution overheating our world. Just like the human body, our planet has a very limited average temperature range where climate conditions are stable and we humans can thrive. Every tenth of a degree of overheating increases risks of tipping points and irrevocable harm.

As New Zealanders can already see from Cyclone Gabrielle and the Tāmaki Makaurau/Auckland floods, we cannot afford a destabilising global climate. What's more, current Government commitments to cut gross domestic emissions are a mere fraction of what’s needed from us. Pressure to cut all gases much faster is highly likely, and New Zealand simply can’t afford to continue subsidising and shielding the agriculture sector from reality either.

Pricing the mega-tonnes of carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide emitted by the sector is essential to drive the deep cuts in our gross emissions that are needed to meet our domestic and international obligations.

We therefore strongly urge that basic farm-level agricultural emissions reporting starts from 1 January 2024 as per the Climate Change Response Act backstop provision - albeit with a small legislative change to use the definition by He Waka Eke Noa - Primary Sector Climate Action Partnership (26,000 farms covering 96% of agricultural emissions). 

Our full submission to the Ministry for the Environment Manatū Mō Te Taiao, produced by Liz Springford and Dr Scott Metcalfe based on OraTaiao’s 2030 vision for Aotearoa’s transformed food sector and lands, is available here. 

OraTaiao has called on the Government to either radically transform NZ’s Emissions Trading Scheme, or end it. See our submission to the Government’s review.

Critical infrastructure provides essential services to people across Aotearoa and it must be able to to absorb shocks, recover from disruptions and adapt to changing conditions. Critical infrastructure is often thought of as energy supply, telecommunications, water, food, financial services and roads. 

OraTaiao's feedback to the discussion document on enhancing its resilience emphasises that the health system – especially primary care – deserves particular attention. In addition, critical infrastructure protection and enhancement, if designed well, can offer significant health gains through developing resilient active and public transport systems, enhancing the “health” of buildings, and protecting food production. And Aotearoa’s approach to enhancing the resilience of critical infrastructure must be fully enmeshed in our mitigation efforts to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050. 

Our submission on these issues to the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet, prepared by OraTaiao Co-convenor Dr Dermot Coffey, is available here.