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General Workshop Information

Presenter/Moderator

Jurgen Heissner and (TBA )

Introduction

Urgency around the issues of climate change and energy resource availability continues to grow. This puts increasing strains on New Zealand’s governance structures on all levels.

While local and national governance might agree on what is required regarding our changing future, local government lack the business and legal mandate to address these issues. Meanwhile, the pacing of events makes current governance processes meaningless. Is this where the public must help? Is there a practical way to bridge the gap between broad national policies and practical implementation at the local level?

It is doubtful that the private and public sector institutions will cope with system discontinuities resulting from energy transition.  These institutions must be able to implement structural changes required for effective mitigation. There is a general and deep feeling that current local and national government procedures and policies are grossly inadequate to maintain a successful economy under the challenges ahead.

Crucially, governance as formulated in the LGA (Local Government Act) & RMA (Resource Management Act)is not geared towards long term strategic planning and management of risk. We are referring to the community plans established in the LTCCP’s (Long-term council community plans) which does not mandate the management of risk to the community outcomes desired by citizens contained in the LTCCP’s.

The RMA, on the other hand, stresses the preservation of a largely illusionary status quo.  It should focus on enhancing the resilience of ecosystems aimed at sustaining people in a rapidly changing world. Business and citizens perceive the RMA as an obstacle to successful adaptation during times necessitating urgent and controlled transition processes.

How local and national governance can rapidly adapt to these challenges, and achieve successful energy transition is the question this workshop seeks to address.

Recommended Reading prior to the weekend

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Is This a Crash Program? Thoughts About Rich-World Climate Strategy