Govt backs climatic project plan

Press, 12 September 1988, Page 11

Govt backs climatic project plan

PA Wellington The Government has approved a programme to plan for climatic change caused by the greenhouse effect and it is now being put into effect, the Secretary for the Environment, Dr Roger Blakely, has announced.

The greenhouse effect is caused by gases in the atmosphere which trap heat and warm the earth.

Dr Blakely said the climatic change programme was developed from a meeting of Government departmental heads in April, and approved in June. Details had now been resolved and the first of three working parties had been established. The others were being set up. A Massey University lecturer in geography, Mr Richard Heerdegen, said planning had to start now to take advantage of the potential benefits of the greenhouse effect and to compensate for its detrimental effects.

Dr Blakely said planning was now at such a stage that visiting overseas experts were telling him New Zealand was leading the world because it was the only country with a Government - approved programme in place. Australia was now copying the New Zealand example and a similar programme has been recommended in Canada.

Dr Blakely said there was wide public concern about what was going to happen and so the working parties would be tapping the best brains in the country to ensure they and the public had the right information.

He and the Australian environmental depart-

ment were now also setting up a co-operative research and information exchange programme which had already been agreed to by the two Governments.

The first working party is looking at atmospheric science issues and refining predictions of what will happen. It has been nicknamed the Facts Party. It will identify the climatic changes which can be expected and report by the end of the year. The second group will interpret climatic change in terms of the impact on biological and physical systems and social and economic well-being. It will report by the end of next year.

The third working group will develop policies for responses both here and internationally. The efforts of the three working groups are being co-ordinated by a steering committee chaired by Dr Blakely with the heads of the three working groups as members.

The facts group is chaired by Dr John Hickman, of the Meteorological Service, and is being convened by the Royal Society of New Zealand. The interpretation group is headed by Dr Paul Mosley, manager of the D.S.I.R. water resource survey.

The policy party is chaired by the ministry of Environment’s biological and physical systems directorate manager, Ms Judy Lawrence. Dr Blakely said the process would include consultation with Maori people, environmental groups, industry, professional societies and local and regional authorities.