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Kapiti Coast District Council under fire for Climate Action Plan based on ‘extreme and implausible’ modelling

Kapiti Coast District Council news
Image – © Kapiti C.A.L.M

The Kapiti Coast District Council (KCDC) has come under fire for its Climate Adaptation Plan, a project that has sparked significant controversy among residents and climate change skeptics alike.

Formed in 2020, the Coastal Advisory Panel (CAP), chaired by former Prime Minister Jim Bolger, was tasked with navigating the process and delivering a report by May 2024. However, many critics argue that the plan is based on extreme and implausible modelling, leading to unnecessary anxiety and financial burdens on the community.

Central to the controversy is the Jacob’s Report, which employs the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s (IPCC) SSP/RCP5-8.5 model—a scenario considered extreme and now largely dismissed by the IPCC itself as implausible. The modelling, which projects exaggerated sea level rises, has resulted in the identification of five Coastal Adaptation Areas (CAAs), labelled as hazard zones. These areas extend up to 2km inland, capturing numerous properties in a broad hazard zone, which resident groups argue is excessive and not reflective of the actual risk.

Critics point out several flaws in the modelling used by CAP. For instance, the exclusion of sea walls and natural barriers, along with the assumption of a high-energy rocky shoreline instead of the sandy coastline that characterises Kapiti, raises questions about the accuracy and relevance of the projections. Moreover, the unique geological features of Kapiti’s coastline, such as its accreting coastline and rising landmass, have not been adequately considered.

The implementation process has also been marred by a lack of effective community engagement, which critics say is due to the council’s desire to push through the changes with as little publicity, and thus opposition, as possible. Early workshops saw dismal attendance, with approximately 20 residents participating in the Northern area and 30 in the Central area. A significant turnout at the Raumati Community Workshop, where around 200 residents challenged CAP’s science and process, led KCDC to limit future workshop attendance to 60 people, only accessible through registration. Furthermore, KCDC’s decision to move all subsequent engagements online via Zoom has been criticised as a way to stifle public participation and limit scrutiny. The promised Zoom meetings never eventuated.

Allegations of conflict of interest have further tainted the process, with CAP staff participating in workshops and purportedly skewing results by giving equal weight to minority views that align with CAP’s predetermined outcomes. The four basic workshop questions have been criticised for steering participants toward a tokenistic, predetermined conclusion rather than genuinely reflecting community concerns.

Financially, the CAA process has already cost ratepayers over $4 million, and the push for managed retreat—a plan to relocate homes based on potential risks rather than actual events—has alarmed many. The cost includes $250,000 for the Jacobs Report. The projected cost to implement the pathways model is more than $3 billion. Documents from the Ministry for the Environment suggest that residents might face eviction with little to no compensation, exacerbating fears about the loss of property rights and financial stability.

The impact of the CAAs on property values, insurance, and mortgages is another significant concern. If the CAAs are accepted and applied to Titles or LIM reports, residents could face increased insurance costs, difficulties in buying, selling, or refinancing their properties, and potential devaluation of their homes. This has led to widespread anxiety about the financial and psychological toll of the adaptation plan.

Resident advocacy groups, such as Kapiti C.A.L.M (Calm Alarmist Law Madness), have voiced strong opposition, arguing that the process is undemocratic and based on flawed science. They advocate for a pause in the CAP process, removal of the extreme modelling, and a shift toward more balanced and realistic climate data. They call for genuine, transparent community engagement and local government initiatives that focus on practical mitigation measures like sea walls and other protective barriers.

Kapiti C.A.L.M spokeswoman Tanya Lees told Paul Brennan of Reality Check Radio recently that locals were a bit ‘angry and up in arms’ over the situation. The council had put ‘Hazard Notices’ on everybody’s LIM reports ‘no matter where you live – it’s a district-wide blanketing’.

This had already impacted on property values.

‘Real estate agents are telling us it’s affecting people’s ability to buy and sell. Insurance is another thing, which could lead to insurance withdrawal – that’s actually happened to people on the coast right now, and people’s ability to get a mortgage as well. The work that they’ve done has actually thrown the district under the bus.’

The community’s trust in the process remains shaky. Many residents feel their concerns have been ignored, and the debate over the Climate Adaptation Plan highlights the broader tensions between climate change adaptation efforts and the need for democratic, evidence-based decision-making.

The CAP Recommendations will be presented to Council on June 20.

Kapiti C.A.L.M have a petition for local residents to sign which closes late on 19 June, for Council to reject CAP’s Recommendations Report, that Council stop the CAP Process and that no more money is spent. This will be presented at the council meeting on the 20th.

Congruently, there is also a central government process (Submission on the Inquiry into Climate Adaptation) underway, with submissions closing at 11.59pm on 16 June.

Bureaucrats have imposed a short deadlines for public feedback and submissions.

Kapiti C.A.L.M believe these policies will eventually affect all of New Zealand, and will diminish property rights and subvert democracy. There is a danger that if implemented, government agencies will have unbridled power, with a risk of the following:

  • Removal of private property rights
  • Establishment of a separate crown entity
  • Lack of recourse for homeowners
  • Extraordinary powers to central government
  • A shift in policy to a highly subjective and ill-defined ‘well-being’ approach from the current ‘risk to life and property’ focus in assessing risk.
  • ‘Pre-emptive adaptation’ based on implausible climate models

Critics also claim the process will target non-Maori residents as there is an underlying theme in the documents whereby special rights or consideration will be reserved for indigenous people.

Kapiti C.A.L.M urge as many people as possible to make their point of view heard by making submissions and signing the petition before the deadlines. Templates for submissions are available on the Kapiti C.A.L.M website.

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18 COMMENTS

  1. Kapiti CALM should find a lawyer who will represent the residents of the area and possibly of ALL of New Zealand on a Class-Action basis and then sue the shit out of Bolger and his Globalist underlings who are basing their actions on the orchestrated LIES that climate-change falsely presents in order to steal property and individual rights using WEF tactics!
    Bolger’s group is also fomenting racial division in exempting the Maori from these requirements.
    Putting hazardous conditions on LIMs has now de-valued the properties affected, and this is even more of a reason to SUE the Bolger Group and the Jacob’s Report authors for conspiring to remove property and civil rights from New Zealanders.
    The REAL hazard are those who are former PM’s who are still ‘playing behind the scenes’ implementing policies and ideas that they would NEVER get away with while in office,doing things behind closed doors with short timelines for public responses, in any at all!
    Property and home-owners should go to the Councils via their solicitors and order them to remove the ‘Hazard’ entries on their LIMs, as the Jacob’s Report, CAP and Climate Change (formerly ‘Global Warming’ as dictated by Al Gore…) have no scientific bearing.
    Watch for these properties possibly getting lasered like in Hawaii and Texas.

    https://banned.video/watch?id=65f445efa69c2bbb839be8bd
    https://banned.video/watch?id=64f1e6f035a37b83131ba4c1

    Noteworthy is that the Hawaii fires were targeted at coastal towns, like the Kapiti Coast!
    Get out the blue paint, and get busy both with painting your roofs and structures, and suing Bolger and the Jacob’s Report authors!

  2. Before they can proceed with any of their lunatic schemes they should be made to show definite proof of the sea levels rising.

    • There isn’t any actual evidence, that’s why the corrupt ‘experts’ resort to nonsensical fraudulent ‘climate models’.

  3. I feel utterly violated that this groomerican zionist cult fraud has infested our country.
    The same zionist investors are pushing this antihuman, antiGod, anti sovereign fraud as pushed the GMO shot fraud.
    Total snakeoil and spin.
    Our country has been systematically captured by zionist corporate fraudsters.
    All non zionist lives are worthless by their talmud, and Jesus boils in excrement in hell under their beliefs.
    I DO NOT CONSENT TO THE ZIONIST INFESTATION OF OUR NATION NOR DO I ACCEPT THIS ZIONIST FRAUD BEING IMPLEMENTED IN OUR POLICIES AND LEGISLATION.
    This penetration of Godless transhumanist saboteurs must be rolled back NOW.
    ALL THOSE WHO PERPETUATE THIS ZIONIST FRAUD MUST BE ROLLED BACK WITH IT.
    Anti zionism is NOT antisemitic.
    END THIS NOW.

  4. Climate Change is another zionist scam just like Covid, germ theory, central banking and the mother of all make believe fairy tales – the holohoax.

  5. Climate change is a fraud, Remember when it was called Global Warming, Then climate gate happened and all those e-mails surfaced from scientists desperate to make the facts fit their agenda, however when they could not they started calling it climate change which is such a vague term that it could mean anything. Sensible people call climate change the weather, it always has been and always will be just that.
    globalist/ socialist/ communist scum with an agenda are the only ones that are pushing it and scaring kids and the simple minded with their Doom speak.

  6. The ‘elites’ (they’re anything but) want the coastal land for themselves.
    They don’t want our old cars getting in their way on the roads, or eating their prime food such as beef, eggs etc.
    Basically they want us dead.

    • No, they want the coastal land for themselves. They are working on eroding iwi’s rights as well starting with changing the Treaty. We all need to unite on this and not buy into their divide and conquer plan pitting maori and non-maori against each other.

  7. Obvious scientific fraud to further the fake climate change ‘managed retreat’ agenda.

    It’s time to start suing the pants off these corrupt ‘scientists’ and bent bureaucrats.

  8. It becomes obvious why govt want to change or get rid of The Treaty – to get their hands on Maori assets thereby controlling all lands and assets.
    The above is based on the United Nations initiatives of so called Sustainability & other Green labelled BS.
    Rosa Koire has spoken and outlined these UN initiatives in many of her videos based on her expertise and knowledge in these areas with local councils implementng re-zoning and other to encroach on and/or remove property rights, This is a globally implemented plan and applies to all countries.
    I spent some time in Turangi recently and was looking up one of the Motels there on the riverside (the Tongariro River Motel) and read some of the blogs. The motel had a blog on ‘ climate change or climate warming ‘, and it stated that the Taupo district council had zoned their motel property as being a flood-zone with nothing to back it up. What was most ridiculous was that not one of their neighbours or any other property in the area was flood-zoned- – Their property is exactly next to State Highway One which also was not flood-zoned. It begs the question of how could just one single property be in a flood-zone ? Where is the flood water coming from?
    Absolute madness. Removing property rights from new zealanders is happening quickly here without many people realizing it. That Turangi motel i mentioned earlier , because of the flooding bs is now required to raise the level of their motel units – imagine the cost of that – although that is part of the plan to make things too expensive, povertising people probably hoping to get their corporate hands on a cheap property because no-one else will buy it with the imposed council restrictions and fake regulations.
    I hope the Kapiti people stand up strong and dont give up on it. There needs to be more public exposure to this as i doubt mainstream media will take on the story for all the above reasons we know of. I think councils need to be dismantled and any private contractor can be utilised to collect our rubbish and clean the gutters !!

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