A group of Northland residents have banded together to fight back against their council's cuts to climate funding.
The Kaipara District Council has rolled back several pieces of dedicated climate resilience work without seeking community consultation, a move Lawyers for Climate Action says is "incredibly concerning".
"The council has been winding back basically all climate funding and all the climate programmes they've been running," executive director for Lawyers for Climate Action Jessica Palairet said.
"The procedural concern there is that these programmes were a result of significant community consultation."
Lawyers for Climate Action is investigating whether the council's moves contravene the Local Government Act.
Mayor Craig Jepson and Deputy Mayor Jonathan Larsen say climate resilience is already taken into account in things like stopbanks and roading.
"I think there's a bit of a misunderstanding here because council has significant investment adaptation and mitigation programmes," Larsen said.
But locals point to a number of decisions during council meetings that seem to contradict that.
On September 27 the deputy mayor stopped development of Kaipara's climate policy, citing there was "no statutory requirement" to carry out the work and noting it would save taxpayers around $33,000.
On October 25, the mayor tabled a motion - not on the agenda - not to approve some climate adaptation recommendations, catching the council's climate change advisor Katy Simon by surprise.
In a recording of that council meeting, Simon responded, "there's not much I can say to that, because that was a bit of a blindside".
On October 30, Simon resigned.
On November 29 a letter from Ruawai College student Emma Philips expressing concern over the scrapping of a climate change adaptation pilot was read out to council.
In his right of reply the mayor responded: "It's a pity that school girls don't get a better education about what's actually happening.
"Our education system and media deals in climate porn half the time and don't come out and show people what the actual empirical evidence is."
When Newshub asked Larsen if he and the mayor accepted the scientific consensus on climate change, Larsen said: "Well I think what you've got is a lot of different climate modelling."
It's widely accepted the world is on track for 2.5-3C of warming, which will bring increased severe weather.
Climate scientist Dave Frame said we've already seen an intensification of weather events, and we need to prepare for a future where that continues.
"It doesn't make any sense to cut adaptation funding for things that are going to make us more resilient in the future," Frame said.
Some councillors are also uncomfortable with the mayor's comments.
"There's information that's able to get out into the community that may be incorrect, and there's very limited scope to correct that information," Councillor Eryn Wilson-Collins said.
About 850 people in Kaipara District have signed a petition against the funding cuts to the council's climate adaptation programme.
Local Aprilanne Bonar said Jepson's comments on climate change indicate he's skeptical of the science, something most people didn't realise when voting him in.
Bonar said Jepson's comments are damaging.
"By spreading these inaccurate statements, people do believe them, and so they're misleading the community. That it's worse than having a bit of a gossip around a dinner table," she said.
Bonar and Caren Davis have formed a group opposing the council's changes, which include pausing the Ruawai Pathways Pilot programme aimed at supporting the coastal community to prepare for flooding and sea level rise.
Davis said she's concerned certain council members are allowing their own personal ideas on climate change to make the decisions for the community.
"I think that they're missing some vital pieces of the puzzle when it comes to climate work in the area."
Mayor Jepson was overseas when Newshub called, but Acting Mayor Larsen said the council is funding other adaptation measures, and was trying to avoid duplication and keep rates down.
"We've got 30 drainage districts we work with, the biggest being the Raupo drainage district, that protects these communities from coastal flooding and inundation."
Submissions are open to the Kaipara long-term plan, so residents can have their say on how their district prepares for climate change.
