Sage Eugenie: Annual Review Debate — In CommitteeText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeSage Eugenie: Annual Review Debate — In Committee[Sitting date: 13 April 2016. Volume:713;Page:10522. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]EUGENIE SAGE (Green): In my brief call I would like to talk about climate change and if I get time the Resource Management Act. The report of the Ministry for the Environment for 2014-15 talks about an outcome statement being that “New Zealand becomes a successful low-carbon society that is resilient to climate change impacts on its climate economy and lifestyle”—a very laudable outcome with which the Green Party would agree. We have got $3.4 million having been spent to support policy making by Ministers and another $7.5 million for resource management policy advice yet all of this money has failed to deliver decent advice on adapting to climate change. We have seen that the National Government has got an extremely weak stance on reducing our climate emissions and also it is not ensuring that we prepare for the impacts of climate change such as sea level rise.Five months ago—last November—the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment delivered a report that made eight recommendations on how we could start to tackle the impacts of sea level rise yet the Minister of Finance Bill English seems to think that sea level rise is speculative. The Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment recommended that there be a working party established to look at the fiscal and economic implications of sea level rise but according to Minister English there are other more pressing more immediate issues. That is despite the fact that the parliamentary commissioner identified a $20 billion cost to replacing just the homes in low-lying areas that are potentially at risk from the impacts of coastal erosion more coastal flooding and a higher water table associated with rising sea levels. So the Government has failed to act there.The Minister has also failed to act in providing clear national guidance to local authorities in terms of how they deal with sea level rise. The Government needs to provide that national direction under the Resource Management Act. What have we seen? The most recent guidance for local authorities in terms of the amount of sea level rise that they should plan for dates back to 2008 under the former Labour Government. It talks about a rise of 0.8 metres by 2100 yet since then we have had several reports from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. We need new guidance. I understand it is being developed in the ministry but we have not seen it yet.I was at a seminar just last week in a room full of quite anxious planners property and insurance experts and scientists where they were highlighting that the risks of the Antarctic and Greenland ice sheets melting can significantly exacerbate the rate of sea level rise. Potentially just from the West Antarctic ice sheet alone it will be 2 metres of sea level rise in a generation yet what is the Ministry for the Environment doing under this Government? It is failing to ensure that we have consistent national direction with a national policy statement on sea level rise and natural hazards.It is leaving it to coastal communities to deal with this challenging issue on their own. We have seen what happened in Kāpiti and in Christchurch when those councils tried to take a long-term view and tried to include provisions in their plans in order to control development in areas that were at risk of coastal hazard and at risk of rising seas. There was a substantial push back and both councils withdrew those provisions. So the National Government is being completely irresponsible by failing to provide that consistent national guidance. It is leaving it to the communities in low-lying areas of Napier on Wellington’s south coast in South Dunedin and in the eastern suburbs of Christchurch to have to cope on their own.We had the Minister for Climate Change Issues admitting in the House yesterday that councils are not providing enough guidance to communities about the potential impacts of sea level rise and the risk to property values. How are we going to solve that? The Government has got its head in the sand. It needs to tackle this issue because as the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment has said we have got time to plan but we have to start planning now. Her report came out 5 months ago and we have seen no action by the Government. There is a $20 billion cost for the replacement of homes yet the finance Minister has failed to set up a working group to look at this in more detail. It may be that the Government has got an economic policy and that like the costs of the rebuild after the Christchurch earthquakes it thinks that somehow this is going to spur economic activity if it leaves communities to be inundated and having to cope with issues on their own.