Kia ora koutou,
We hope this finds you well and enjoying the spring weather.
Before I go on, I want to acknowledge the stress, fear, and anxiety recently experienced by those who live in Dunedin, and surrounding communities, who have just experienced an extreme weather event. With 130mm of rain falling in 24 hours last Thursday and Friday (the most in a century!), a state of emergency was declared, at least 11 houses have been red stickered, dozens of roads were closed, and insurance premiums will likely rise.
This is the reality of living through a climate crisis.
This was a flooding event that was made significantly worse due to our warming planet. As the planet warms, there is more energy in our atmosphere, which leads to more moisture in the air, meaning greater rainfall. You can try a quick experiment to show this phenomenon by placing a credit card over a glass of cold, warm, and hot water for 30 seconds, then seeing which card has the most water on it.
The planet is warming, of course, due to the increasing volume of greenhouse gases (GHGs) in our atmosphere. GHGs trap heat from radiating out to space and cause the planet to warm (for more on the science behind climate change see this blog of ours from 2019).

This table shows the increase in average annual temperature across seven towns/cities across the motu. You can learn more here.
At the very same time that residents in Dunedin have water flooding through their homes due to our heating planet, we have a government racing through the Crown Minerals Amendment Bill, that would see a reversal on the oil and gas exploration ban, and the Fast-Track Approvals Bill, which continues to create huge controversies and concerns over our economic direction and the impacts on our already heavily degraded environment. An environment so degraded that we can boast:
Surely people look at that scientific data, and the fragility of our current economic system and say, “We can’t keep doing what we’ve always done!”. If not, how bad does it need to get??
After very strong criticism from across the motu and across the political spectrum, the most contentious element of the Fast-Track Approvals Bill, which gave three ministers final decision-making power on projects, has been changed to assign that responsibility to an expert panel. Although we are supportive of this change, there remains huge concerns over the impact of this bill on the health and wellbeing of our communities, Te Taiao (environment), and tāngata (people). (For a great rundown of the revised process see here).
After months of requests for the government to share what projects it is planning implement under this bill, and after a complaint to the Ombudsman, a list of 149 proposed projects has finally been released. Although we feel there are some positive projects in that list, including housing projects and wind farms, we, like many others are shocked (but not surprised) to see projects such as open cast coal mines, deep sea mining, waste-to-energy plants, and hydro dams on the list.
We must stress that those housing and renewable energy projects should not get a free pass on their environmental, social, and economic impacts. Absolutely not. They too must be designed, consented, and built to be part of a circular, regenerative, and inclusive economy.
As a business consultancy that is supporting business to make the transition to this emerging new economic system, we are sure you can empathise with our deep frustration with both bills, and the overall economic thinking of this government. It’s hard enough for businesses to make the changes. They could really do with a government that understands, champions, and supports the biggest opportunity for business and our economy since the Industrial Revolution.
Rather than spending on infrastructure to retrieve and recycle or reuse the millions of tonnes of resources we send to landfill every year, they plan to blow up more of our natural world to mine for more. Rather than fast-tracking public transport and cycle lanes, they are planning to build more roads. Rather than supporting farmers to fast-track the adoption of regenerative agricultural practices, they plan to dam more rivers and irrigate more land unsuitable for their current farming practices.
Climate change and our environmental degradation is scary and confronting, but when we understand the causes and the solutions, we can see massive opportunities!
When we stop burning fossil fuels, we will not only stop heating our planet, but we will also have cleaner air. When we build better public transport and cycleways, we will have less traffic congestion. When we stop sending millions of tonnes of materials to landfills, we will create more jobs and stop having to find new sites to accommodate all that we waste.
As we stated in our recent submission, beyond the opportunity losses which would be caused by these bills, we are hugely concerned about the enduring damage that will be done to New Zealand’s global brand and the impact that will have on our business community and economy.
New Zealand exporters rely very heavily on our “clean green” image and these moves by this government are receiving global media coverage. This erodes international consumers’ trust in NZ products and the ability to charge premiums for our goods. Further to this we have free trade agreements with the likes of the UK and the EU that include clauses relating to achieving our climate targets and caring for our biodiversity.
We often ask at Go Well, why is it that there is such resistance from politicians, businesses, and communities to transform our economic system? Why is everyone not rushing to a new way of trading and doing business that would stop climate change, regrow forests, clean our waterways, improve public health and wellbeing, increase equality, and create a better future for all?
For us there are three main reasons.
One: There is the fear of the unknown. People are not courageous enough to step into the unknown – “better the devil you know than the devil you don’t know.”
Two: There is a lack of knowledge and awareness of just how bad the state of our climate and environment is, how bad it will get, and the links to how we currently live, consume, and do business.
And three: There are people who benefit from the status quo and who are spending a lot of money on convincing people that we need to continue to destroy our own health, and the planet’s health, to achieve “economic growth” and prosperity.
A fact that has been highlighted by RNZ investigations into more than $500,000 in political donations to National, Act and New Zealand First and their candidates, by businesses and individuals set to benefit from projects on the fast-track list. Or my own investigations into fossil fuel lobby group Energy Resource’s Aotearoa.
These are all reasons that you, and the businesses you lead or work within, can help address.
Be courageous as a collective business and especially as business leaders. Face up to the problems. Talk about them. Understand them and understand the impacts of your business. Speak to your stakeholders and find those you share common ground with to collaborate with and build support. Then set goals and a pathway to guide to becoming a circular business and actively and proudly contribute to the solutions.
Share your vision for a fairer, cleaner, healthier world and help educate and empower people to do things differently and be part of the solutions. Be part of the voice for a national circular economy strategy to help galvanize and align business, government, and the public.
Be outspoken against those who are proactively hindering the transition and demand better from your elected politicians.
It feels to me like we are at the most critical of times. Not just because of the climate tipping points we are going past, which will see irreversible changes, but because there is such a strong and concerted effort to undo the progress that we have made.
Let me be clear, we have by no means made the progress required, at the speed or scale required. But we have made progress. And we all need to do everything we can within our sphere of control and influence to hold onto that while continuing to move forward. We cannot quietly watch our economy be taken backwards, our air and water further polluted, our native species killed off, our natural world further ripped apart, and our communities made poorer and sicker.
That’s not right, and that’s not good business!
As I write this Hurrican Milton, one of the fastest intensifying Atlantic storms on record, is bearing down on the US state of Florida. Less than two weeks after Hurricane Helene devastated the Gulf Coast and killed at least 225 people in Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia and North Carolina.

View of Hurricane Milton from space. Image credit NASA via BBC.
Yes, we need energy to power our economy. And yes, we need jobs and new infrastructure. Absolutely we do! But as I keep saying to anyone who will listen – the planet doesn’t give a sh*t! It is not waiting for us to get our sh*t together. Its climate will simply change in response to the level of GHGs in the atmosphere. Just as the laws of physics, chemistry, and biology predict. Changes that will make the planet increasingly hostile and uninhabitable.
We have to do things differently now! And we have to have an economy the operates within the laws that govern all life on this planet. It really is that simple.
So, if you give a sh*t, don’t sit on the sidelines and don’t be silent. For tragedy to prevail, good people do nothing.
Nick and the Go Well Team.