Sage Eugenie: Oral Questions — Questions to MinistersText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeSage Eugenie: Oral Questions — Questions to Ministers[Sitting date: 24 February 2015. Volume:703;Page:1844. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]6.EUGENIE SAGE (Green) to the Minister for the Environment: Does he agree with the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment that a 30 centimetre rise in sea level “may not sound much” but “will be significant at a national level” in New Zealand?Hon Dr NICK SMITH (Minister for the Environment): Yes but we need to be open about the considerable uncertainty in projections. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Fifth Assessment Report projects a rise from now to 2050 of between 10 centimetres and 27 centimetres so the parliamentary commissioner is at the most pessimistic end of that range.Eugenie Sage: Does he agree with Local Government and Environment Committee chair Scott Simpson that the primary concern with the parliamentary commissioner’s investigation into sea level rise is its potentially detrimental financial impact on the owners of coastal property and is that why he has chosen not to use the Resource Management Act to develop a national policy statement or a national environmental standard for sea level rise to help local authorities in their climate change adaptation?Hon Dr NICK SMITH: The member misrepresents the comments from my colleague the member of Parliament for Coromandel. The reason the Government provides guidance to local authorities to plan for a sea level rise of between 0.5 metres and 0.8 metres over the years through to 2100 is that the science says that over that period it could be anywhere—and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change says this—between 0.28 metres and 0.98 metres. That is a huge range. The idea that you can simplistically regulate when the science is not that simple is the reason the Government has not provided a national environmental standard but is instead providing guidance for local authorities.Eugenie Sage: I seek leave to table an email from the Buller District Council chief executive officer Paul Wylie which says in relation to that council’s work on climate change risk assessment that the council will look to central government for some national—Mr SPEAKER: Leave is sought to table that particular email from Paul Wylie. Is there any objection to it being tabled? There is none. It can be tabled.Document by leave laid on the Table of the House.Hon Dr NICK SMITH: I seek leave to table the guidance that my Ministry for the Environment provides for all local authorities including the Buller District Council on the level of sea level rise that they should plan for.Mr SPEAKER: Before I put the leave can I just be clear that it is not something that is easily available on a website?Hon Dr NICK SMITH: Oh it is easily available. It is quite clear—Mr SPEAKER: Order! There will be no need for me to put the leave.Eugenie Sage: Given the significant impacts of sea level rise such as increased coastal erosion and increased flood hazard risk why are councils being given just some 2008 guidance and being left to deal with the issues themselves rather than being supported by central government?Hon Dr NICK SMITH: No matter how much the member wishes there is not the level of definitiveness in the science to tell local authorities over the period to 2100—or for that matter in the period to 2050—exactly what level of sea level rise there will be. No amount of wishful thinking will provide that exact science.Eugenie Sage: Does the Minister think it is responsible for his Government to implement policies that have New Zealand on track to double our emissions in the next decade while providing little practical support to local government in how it tackles issues such as coastal erosion where it controls future development and how it reduces the risk is of sea level rise?Hon Dr NICK SMITH: I would be happy to challenge the member and say that this Government has made more progress on constraining greenhouse gas emissions than any Government since this issue arose. If you look at the growth in emissions between the year 1999 and 2008 when the Green Party propped up that Government we saw record increases in New Zealand’s greenhouse gas emissions. What you have seen under this Government is record increases in renewable energy and I am proud of it.