Challenges for Local Government and Communities

Challenges for Local Government and Communities
Access to information – reliable, relevant, local data Translating the big picture to the regional/local level Political risk – short term electoral cycle vs intergenerational planning Restricting property rights Protecting private property Resourcing – critical mass Ability and agility to respond through planning documents

Some of the challenges local government and communities face include:

Challenges around translating the big picture to the regional and local levels – evidence that communities see climate change as a global issue that central government is responsible for – need to make it a local issue and provide local information so communities can make choices and take action.
Need to manage political risks and get councillor “buy in” and support. This can be challenging given the short term three year electoral cycle and the long term investment required for climate change adaptation . It is a case of the costs come now, but the benefits are long term – this can be a hard message to sell especially with councillors that have been elected on a no rates increase platform.
Politicians may be reticent about using the words “climate change”, and prefer talking about - community resilience, hazard management, asset planning which is fine but comes down to the same thing.
Local government and communities have to face the challenge of being honest about risk of individual properties to climate change.
If councils need to act quickly in adapting to climate change then making changes to district and regional plans may not deliver a quick result. From start to finish on average to change a plan takes 3 years and to review an entire plan takes over 8 years.