Wellington

In 2017, a global survey by the Deutsche Bank proved that Wellington is the best city in the world to live in, based on cost of living, pollution, climate and house prices. This wasn’t news to us, but being a waterfront city facing a changing climate, we need to work to keep it that way!

This year’s Climathon in Wellington will tackle three main challenges:

MITIGATION: Reducing the cities total greenhouse gasses is key to mitigating the impact of climate change. New technologies and approaches relating to buildings, waste management, transport, energy sources, and food production are all needed, and Climathon NZ has seen amazing ideas over the last two years’ that focus in these areas.

Our Challenge: How can we improve our buildings, waste management, transport, energy or agriculture in Wellington to reduce our environmental impact?

COMMUNICATION: Imagine learning your home or business will be affected by changes to the climate. Imagine knowing if you take a poor process to informing people about the local effects of climate change you could end up in court. Understandably, talking about adapting to climate change can be a bit scary for both those trying to inform communities and those directly affected by changes to the climate.

Our Challenge: How can those who will be affected by changes to our climate be engaged and better informed?

ADAPTATION: Recently, amazing models have been made that visualise the way sea level rise will infiltrate our underground infrastructure, such as sewage, electricity and storm water. The next step is to understand what that means for the city’s businesses and residents, and how to future proof our cities essential services. We know a lot about some areas but there is still more information required in areas to help us respond more effectively to the changes occurring.

Our Challenge: What is the impact of sea level rise on our underground services, and how can we improve our ability to respond to this?