Event Details

As we think through the next steps for community led retreat and adaptation planning at a national level, we invite you to join us in Dunedin to hear from the regions that are coming together to make the existing system work as best they can in the face of the effects of climate change

Regional coordination will be critical to our ability to adapt and respond to the effects of climate change right across Aotearoa. A joined-up approach to risk identification, mitigation and management is needed, but Government direction on regional coordination is uncertain. Our current land use planning system is not designed to play this role and frameworks for cross-regional coordination are at present unclear and inadequate. 

Join us for this event on Tuesday 7 May and hear from the South Dunedin Future programme alongside others focussed on cross-regional coordination and seek to understand how their learnings and successes can inform national progress. 

Presenter Details

Jean-Luc Payan - Manager Natural Hazards, Otago Regional Council

Jonathan Rowe - Programme Manager - South Dunedin Future, Dunedin City Council

Jonathan works at the Dunedin City Council where he is the Programme Manager for South Dunedin Future, a joint initiative with the Otago Regional Council to develop a climate change adaptation plan for South Dunedin. Jonathan's background is in sustainable development, and prior to joining council, he spent 15 years working for central government in Wellington, primarily for New Zealand Aid Programme and Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (MFAT). Jonathan has worked across the Pacific, has had diplomatic postings in Cook Islands and Fiji, where he led work in areas of health, education, infrastructure, climate change, and disaster response. He has worked in Parliament for the Minister of Foreign Affairs (2015) and Minister of Climate Change (2019-21). Jonathan went to school and university in Dunedin, spent two decades in Wellington and offshore, before returning home to Ōtepoti with his wife and their two sons in 2021.

Tracey Saunders - General Manager Digital Transformation, Aurora Energy