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Climate Action Day 2022
Posted 03 11 2022
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Today is International Climate Action Day and it comes less than a week out from the COP27 talks which take place in Egypt beginning November 6.
Tuia Pito Ora New Zealand Institute of Landscape Architects has this year established a Climate Action Working Group made up of members Rebecca Jerram, Matthew Bradbury, Craig Pocock, Simon Swaffield Henry Crothers, Courtenay Northcott and Mark Lewis.
Matthew Bradbury says the group was established to help Institute members understand what the effects of climate change will be on the profession, including its outward manifestations, ways of practice and advocacy and ways in which landscape architects might organise their practices.
He says the group has developed a mission statement which was presented as a poster at the recent conference, as well as a request for conference delegates to add contribute their own thought as to how the Institute should help its members grapple with what can seem an overwhelming issue. Matthew says the group will be developing practical and strategic advice for members next year.
He says the 2022 NZILA Firth Conference also highlighted the importance of the response of landscape architects to the increasing challenges presented by climate change and says this was illustrated by a strong roster of speakers across the two-day conference.
He says Emily Lane from NIWA set the tone on the first day by describing the research work of Mā te haumaru ō ngā puna wai ō Rakaihautū, ka ora mo ake tonu, an MBIE-funded Endeavour Programme which is developing the first openly-available flood inundation hazard and risk maps.
“Emily also talked about the implications of the work, including specific government legislation around managed retreat and exploring how climate change remediation strategies might play out in particular case studies.”
In his own conference presentation, Matthew speculated on what managed retreat might mean for the future shape of Tamaki Makaurau.
“While the impact of sea level rise in the cities of Aotearoa is concerning, people are already moving away from these cities to the regions.”
Matthew concluded by suggesting that managed retreat from Tamaki Makaurau could be achieved through reconceptualising the city as just one node in a city region of Tamaki, Tauranga and Kirikiriroa,
He says the conference's second day saw the three distinguished presenters discuss concrete techniques to mitigate the effects of climate change through policy and design.
“Craig Pocock presented his well-known research on the carbon landscape, how landscape architects consume carbon in practice but have the ability to ameliorate this lost. Craig illustrated his thesis with a powerful polemic, graphically demonstrating the carbon implications of landscape details in downtown Auckland compared to the area of necessary carbon offsetting.”
“Martin O'Dea, our colleague from AILA” says Matthew, “presented just the tip of an extraordinary iceberg of work that he and AILA have accomplished over three years. This work has helping AILA address in painstaking detail both the effect of climate change and how landscape architects can both mitigate the impact of climate change and adapt their design thinking to address these issues. AILA has termed this strategy climate-positive design and has produced three documents to help its members move into this brave new world.”
Matthew then says the conference finished with famous landscape architect Kongjian Yu who talked about his renowned sponge cities projects.
“Yu, with his practice Turenscape, identified the environmental problem of modern Chinese urbanism many years ago, leading to a government initiative to rebuild Chinese cities to become greener and more open. This initiative has now morphed into building resilience to the effects of Climate change. Yu presented a stunning range of projects that both connect and restore natural ecologies, make new kinds of public space and ensure the future safety of Chinese citizens.”
Craig Pocock and Martin O’Dea’s joint session can be found at the bottom of this page. LAA has also covered Craig’s Carbon Landscape kaupapa here and here.
Martin O'Dea is principal landscape architect for Clouston Associates in their Sydney office and is one of the lead authors for the International Federation of Landscape Architects Climate Action Commitment that was presented at the COP 26 in November last year.
He is the current chair of the Australian Institute of Landscape Architects Climate Positive Design Working Group and in this role was the lead author for ALA's Climate Positive Design Action Plan for Australian Landscape Architects.
In his presentation Martin spoke about Sir David Attenborough saying he had described this as the defining year, the defining issue of our time.
“The IPCC sixth Assessment report, which came out last year, paints a damning picture. It makes it unequivocally clear that every tonne of CO2 is overheating the planet and the wonderful Antonio Guterres, the Secretary-General of the United Nations, called that report a code red for humanity.”
Martin told delegates that the Paris Agreement, for landscape architects, “means that every every project, every park, every streetscape, every playground has got to be carbon neutral by 2050. For Australian landscape architects, we're taking a stronger approach and wanting that to be by 2040 and we've used the Climate Council's assessment of 74%, we've rounded up to 75% to have a 75% reduction in emissions from landscape projects by 2030, which is a substantial challenge.”
Martin urged his audience to understand their climate impacts and to manage and mitigate those impacts. And to “start the conversation, to collaborate, to communicate and to advocate.”
You can see the full presentation and Q + A in the video below.