Not many people would think about a wildfire in the South Island impacting the supply of electricity in the Waikato. But yesterday’s Climate Action Committee heard how climate change is increasing the wildfire season, and a wildfire impacting the high-voltage direct current (HVDC) transmission system in the electricity generation-rich South Island could result in a cascading failure and outage to even the entire North Island.

Such a risk to the electricity network is just one of 286 risks identified in phase one of a climate change risk assessment for the Waikato region.

The council worked with Treaty partners and stakeholders to identify a long list of climate change risks to the Waikato region and to start building a deeper understanding of the impacts to livelihoods, health, ecosystems and species, economic, social and cultural assets, services and infrastructure in the Waikato.

Altogether, 231 direct risks and 55 indirect risks were identified. Indirect risks are those further removed from the actual climate change hazard, such as impacts on mental health and disruptions to supply chains.

Other examples of risks presented to the committee included:

• to marine ecosystems, estuaries and species due to marine heatwaves and ocean chemistry changes (direct).
• to tikanga, due to traditional signs/indicators used to forecast change becoming less reliable, affecting planting and daily decision making and activities such as resource gathering and hunting (indirect)
• to social cohesion and community wellbeing, due to displacement and the potential for managed retreat from exposed areas (indirect).

Manager Chief Executive’s Office Karen Bennett, who is leading the regional council’s climate change response, says the regional assessment is about understanding priority risks to inform adaptation planning and targeted action.

Councils and communities need to understand and proactively manage climate risk as the effects of climate change intensify and communities are becoming more aware that climate hazards could affect things they value.

“We’re now undertaking phase 2 of the risk assessment which involves understanding and rating the risks in collaboration with our stakeholders,” says Ms Bennett.

“The national adaptation plan and emissions reduction plan spell out New Zealand’s long-term strategy and response to climate change and will help us shape our regional response, consistent with these national plans.”

However, there currently is no legislation to address managed retreat, and the committee resolved that the council chair would write to the Government to urge acceleration of the planned legislation to manage retreat from at-risk areas.

The committee also received a report outlining the climate change policy implications for the council based on the changes introduced by the Resource Management Amendment Act 2020 (RMAA).

From 30 November 2022, the council must have regard to the national adaptation and emissions reduction plans when making and amending regional policy statements and regional plans, and it must consider greenhouse gas emissions as a discharge to air in permits under the Resource Management Act.

The committee heard how the council would fit the new obligations into an already busy policy reform programme.

The council has already started incorporating climate responses into its freshwater and coastal policies and has started scoping a project plan regarding the Regional Policy Statement.

Elsewhere, work is beginning on the Waikato region’s third Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Inventory, which is done every three years in partnership with territorial authorities. For the first time, it will include estimates of greenhouse gas losses from drained peat soils.

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