2017 Deep South Challenge Symposium

Minister for Science and Innovation Paul Goldsmith opened our symposium on the Monday morning, taking time out of his jam-packed campaign diary to mark the significance of climate change for the future of New Zealand’s economy and society.

Sea level rise, drought and more extreme weather are just some of the physical impacts of climate change New Zealand can expect in our immediate and longer-term future. The implications of climate change range from whether we can continue to live and work in our current dwellings, to whether we’ll still be able to secure or afford insurance, to how we might future-proof industry and infrastructure to make sure these function properly in a changing climate.

Scientists and researchers, iwi, industry and decision makers in local and central government are all engaged with the challenge of making sure climate change is properly factored in to planning and risk management. The Deep South Challenge, in bringing together scientists and decision makers from many parts of society, aims to enable New Zealanders to adapt, manage risk and thrive in the face of these coming changes.

Iain White, professor of environmental planning at University of Waikato, gave an entertaining keynote challenging participants to think differently about decision making in the face of climate change. He urged the audience to both grapple with and embrace uncertainty, noting that old planning models based around the concept of “predict and provide” may no longer be up to the task. “We can’t expect to fix or solve the climate,” he noted. “We don’t want to make the same mistakes more efficiently.”

Sir Mark Solomon of Ngai Tahu gave a keynote weaving together a whānau narrative on the changing climate in Te Waipounamu with an indication of future iwi strategy, outlining the dialogue about robust adaptation that’s beginning to emerge across all levels of Māori society. With 60 percent of all iwi investments in primary industries, climate change poses both great risks and significant opportunities. In response to questions about how to bring whānau and hapū along the path of climate adaptation, Sir Mark noted, “He aha te kai o te rangatira? He kōrero, he kōrero, he kōrero.” (What nourishes a leader? Talking, talking and more talking.)

The symposium helped us strengthen the relationships between our work programmes. For us, closing the loop between science and society involves linking observations of climate-related processes (both in Antarctica and in New Zealand), with the climate models we’re developing and refining, with climate adaptation work that’s happening at the “flax roots”. In everything we do, we’re trying to make sure our research is useful for and used by the community – in other words, we want to make sure our science affects real change.

The symposium also ignited strong thinking about how climate action can best be effected, and there were calls from both the research and broader communities to strengthen inter-Challenge collaboration – for example, finding common research ground between the Deep South Challenge and the Resilience to Nature’s Challenges, Our Land and Water or Sustainable Seas challenges.

We'll have more follow-up from our symposium in the coming weeks and months, particularly in relation to our strategic direction as we approach 2019 – the point at which we hope to secure a further five years’ of MBIE funding.

In the meantime, browse through some of our presentations below, listen to the podcasts of our three keynotes, or have a look at the image gallery to get a feel for what happened. Hope to see you at our next Symposium!

Our symposium provided a rare opportunity for whakawhanaungatanga - for building relationships and strengthening collaborations within the Deep South Challenge and between our researchers and members of the public and private sectors. Browse through a brief selection of photos here.

The conference presentations are available to view or download below. They're listed in the order they were given. The conference programme is listed first to guide you if you're searching for a particular presentation.