Auckland Botanic gardens

Auckland Botanic Gardens hosted the opening of the 2023 Auckland Climate Festival on a misty 31st August morning.

The month-long climate festival is chance for people to come together as a city to celebrate, catalyse and accelerate climate action.

The opening ceremony and mihi whakatau was given by festival iwi hosts Ngaati Te Ata Waiohua on the Huakaiwaka visitor centre terrace.

There are more than 150 events, initiatives and festival activations taking place across the region.

Water is at the heart of this year’s festival, under the theme Ngaa hua o Wai.

Johnnie Freeland from hosts Ngaati Te Ata Waiohua spoke of the need to regenerate the environment. He told attendees that this year’s floods and cyclones are nudges from nature, from Tawhirimatea, telling us that we are out of balance.

“These are still just nudges, but they are going to get stronger.”

Auckland Councillor Richard Hills spoke about the lessons from the Auckland anniversary day floods and the need to restore natural systems that allow streams and waterways to flow naturally above ground rather than forced through narrow pipes that cannot cope in a deluge.

But he also warned that the climate change consensus has weakened among the elected members of Auckland Council.

Green MP Chloe Swarbrick spoke of the need to protect the inherent dignity of the environment and not simply see it as an economic input.

“If resources are finite then they have to be shared equitably.”