27 May 2008

Action now needed on climate change

IPENZ believes it’s imperative that New Zealand prepares now for the unpredictable events that climate change may bring, through innovative engineering.

“The new projected climate change impacts as outlined by the Ministry for the Environment and NIWA earlier today over the period to 2090 will be significant,” Charles Willmot, IPENZ Director. “Engineers can help farmers face the challenges of providing drought prone areas, with water supply and irrigation planning, in low lying coastal areas, engineers can design sea protection, dams will need to be bigger to so they have a larger storage capacity in times of drought and to ensure ongoing electricity supply, 100 year floods by 2090 may occur every 50 years, so our storm water and flood protection systems will need to be improved.”

“NIWA have provided us with the latest information on what regions in New Zealand may be at risk of rising sea levels, extreme weather conditions such as floods, droughts and stronger winds. Now we have the information, we need to take action, engineers need to help communities plan for these changes to ensure natural hazards do not become national disasters,” says Charles Wilmot.

“It’s good to hear Local Government New Zealand are urging local councils to incorporate the Ministries Guidance Manual on Climate Change, from a risk management approach, as business as usual in their planning processes, it will allow engineers to help plan for these changes in climate.”

For more information contact:
Charles Willmot
Director, IPENZ, Engineers New Zealand.
Mobile: 021 483 522
DDI: 04 4748932

Prepared by Julie Buchanan, Communications Manager, IPENZ, Engineers NZ, DDI: 04 473 2028