Deep South Challenge Newsletter - Spring 2019

Deep South Challenge Newsletter
Spring 2019

Tēnā koutou katoa,

The national and international conversation about climate change continues to grow in strength. And last week, the Global Commission on Adaptation announced a Year of Action, along with a flagship report which finds that investing $1.8 trillion globally from 2020 to 2030 in five areas could yield $7.1 trillion in net benefits.

So what are we in the Deep South Challenge: Changing with our Climate doing about it? Well, we've cleared some pretty significant hurdles in the months since our last newsletter.

We have now funded a suite of research across Climate Modelling and Observations for Model Development. Nine new projects will be announced over the next couple of months. We congratulate all successful researchers and look forward to the ongoing fruits of their work, which enables us to anticipate New Zealand's future climate, in both the shorter and longer terms.

We have released the Request for Proposals (RfP) for our Domains research, supporting New Zealanders to adapt, manage risk and perhaps even thrive under climate change. We're expecting some high-impact research that will no doubt prove as useful to New Zealand's adaptation conversation as our Phase 1 research has been, particularly in clarifying important research, policy and legislative gaps.

Our team continues to change and grow. We welcome Mike Harvey (NIWA) to our Challenge Leadership Team as new science lead of the Processes & Observations programme. We also welcome back Partnerships Director Angela Halliday from her parental leave. In other great news, Waverley Jones, who was covering for Angela, is also continuing in the role - meaning we now have expanded capacity in our Engagement team, to ensure we can maintain and grow our relationships with partners and stakeholders.

There is much more than can be easily summarised here. Please catch up on the highlights of our recent activity - including results of research and of our stakeholder and community engagement - in the items below.

He mihi o te koanga ki a koutou katoa,

Mike Williams, Director

View the Deep South Challenge Newsletter - Spring 2019 online here.

Climate change