We were fortunate to have Dr Grant Blackwell, Chief Science Adviser at He Pou a Rangi/Climate Change Commission, speak at our meeting on 8 July.
We were fortunate to have Dr Grant Blackwell, Chief Science Adviser at He Pou a Rangi/Climate Change Commission, speak at our meeting on 8 July.
Grant explained the Commission’s role as government’s independent, evidence-based adviser on both emissions’ reduction and climate adaptation. Crucially, the Commission can speak plainly about progress “without fear or favour”, and its advice must be both “ambitious and achievable”, weighing the social and economic consequences of change alongside the science.
He shared findings from the Commission’s newly released second national climate change risk assessment, which ranks water infrastructure as our top climate risk, alongside pressures on community connectivity, emergency management, nature and forestry. For Wellington specifically, modelling points to more hot days above 25°C and up to 26% more extreme rainfall under a higher-warming scenario by 2090.
Grant was candid about the headwinds, misinformation and climate geopolitics, but equally clear on the tailwinds: renewables are now often the cheapest form of new electricity generation, and short-term economic decisions are increasingly aligning with long-term emissions goals. Locally, he pointed to Golden Bay growers installing solar, a Nelson-Tasman catchment group farm going off-grid, and new methane-reducing feed technologies rolling out to dairy and sheep and beef farms later this year.
He closed on a personal note: having swapped his much-loved Ford Falcon ute for an EV, fuel savings within three years will pay off the cost. He did admit though, that the old Falcon still “felt good”.
https://www.climatecommission.govt.nz/