Nelson Tasman Climate Forum

Sustainable Gift and Craft Fair
2025-11-29 11:30 - 15:30 (Pacific/Auckland) | Victory Community Center, 2 Totara Street,Nelson,7010,New Zealand, Nelson, 7010, New Zealand

Webinar: COP 30 Debrief with NCC's Daniela Ramirez
2026-03-03 12:00 - 13:00 | Online
Find out what it is like to attend a global climate change conference with NCC’s senior climate change advisor, Daniela Ramirez, who attended the COP 30 event in Belém, Brazil last year.
Find out about how New Zealand is perceived on the world stage, learn about Daniela’s impression of how fossil fuel and the nuclear lobby groups shape the conversations and hear Daniela’s “Nelson List” of learnings to share with her home town.
Bring your questions!
Register here: COP 30 Debrief webinar

Isel Park Social!
2026-03-05 17:00 - 19:00 | Isel Park Market
We welcome our Take the Jump and climate action community to gather at the Isel Park Twilight Market for a catch up where we’ll celebrate our Love to Ride efforts.
NCC’s senior climate change advisor Daniela Ramirez will be present to share about her experience at the COP 30 last year.
Food can be purchased at food trucks on site.

Original Banner Workshop
2026-03-08 10:00 - 14:00 | Magenta Creative, 15 Selwyn Pl,, Nelson
Amplify your voice and make a sign or banner with an environmental message close to your heart. We will be cutting, stitching, sewing and printing letters onto sturdy material to hang on our fences and in our windows.
This event is inspired by the “Be A Good Ancestor” banner made and displayed by Jenny Easton (who will be present) and you’re welcome to use these words for your own design, or come up with your own. Experienced banner makers will be present to help out.
This is a non-partisan exercise and may become a monthly meeting, depending on interest. All are welcome.
Please let us know if you have fabric and textile supplies that you’d like to contribute.

The environment in election year: opportunities and threats
2026-03-11 19:30 | Tahunanui School, 69 Muritai Street, Nelson
The (very short) Annual General Meeting, at 6.45pm, will be followed by our usual meeting, at 7.30pm, with speaker, Raewyn Peart, Policy Director at the Environmental Defence Society (EDS). Her topic will be – “The environment in election year: opportunities and threats”.
EDS seeks to protect and restore Aotearoa New Zealand’s outstanding landscapes, freshwater systems, oceans and indigenous biodiversity. They do this through holding business and government to account, strengthening the law when it is found wanting, and supporting good environmental management practice.
Raewyn heads EDS’s environmental policy work. She has over 30 years professional experience in environmental law and policy, having worked as a resource management lawyer and policy adviser to business, government and the not-for-profit sector. Raewyn has published widely on coastal, marine and other environmental issues. In 2023, Raewyn was awarded the prestigious RMLA Outstanding Person Award.
All are welcome to join us. Tea and coffee will be available before the meeting. More info on this page: AGM & Monthly Meeting: Raewyn Peart, Environmental Defence Society | Forest and Bird

Permaculture Hui in Nelson this year!
2026-04-10 14:00 - 2026-04-13 12:00 | Whakatu Marae and Founders Heritage Park
The annual hui is a vibrant showcase of permaculture in Aotearoa, shaped each year by the unique character of the host bioregion.
Organised collaboratively by the hui team and the PiNZ Council, each gathering reflects a diversity of permaculture practice, sparks timely and meaningful conversations, and strengthens the networks that support our growing community across Aotearoa.
The hui offers an inspiring and enriching experience for all participants—introducing permaculture principles and concepts, fostering connection, and welcoming newcomers into the community. It’s a valuable opportunity to build relationships with aligned individuals, groups, and networks, and to contribute to positive change within our society.
More information and registration here: The Yearly Hui

Permaculture tours in Nelson, Tasman and Golden Bay
2026-04-13 14:00 - 2026-04-16 10:00
Guided Tours of Permaculture Properties in Nelson, Tasman and Golden Bay an addition to the National Permaculture Hui 2026
We will be visiting many exemplary selected homesteading properties which demonstrate a diversity of features showcasing permaculture principles in action – including water management systems, food forests, integrated animal systems, super-productive organic gardens and cosy aesthetic homes constructed with ecological building materials. A special feature of this tour is the underpinning of social permaculture, prevalent in our visits to intentional land-based communities, when this aspect will be spoken about by residents.
More information and registration here: Permaculture Tours – PC Hui 2026

Collaboration Game and Community Resilience Workshop in Golden Bay
2026-04-19 10:00 - 16:30
Tanya Mottl from FutuResilience Events is visiting Golden Bay from Oz and has generously offered to run the Collaboration Game here in Takaka.
This is a unique opportunity to explore greater community connection and resilience in a really fun, interactive way. Tanya has fabulous feedback from other events she has run – so this is not to be missed!
More info and registration HERE.

WEBINAR - Fuel, Physics, and What Comes Next, with Nathan Surendran
2026-04-29 19:30 - 21:00 | Online (Zoom)
Join the discussion on Zoom by registering here.
Nathan is an energy engineer and Chair of the Wise Response Society who has been writing extensively about the current energy crisis and its implications (see below)
NZ will probably hit its climate targets. Not because of good policy, but because the economy is being forced into contraction by an energy crisis that mainstream institutions didn’t see coming – or chose not to. Nathan Surendran connects the immediate fuel emergency to the biophysical economics that conventional policy ignores: declining energy returns, thermodynamic constraints on transition, and a coming wave of insolvency and default that may cause more damage than fuel shortages themselves. He presents practical tools for community resilience, from mutual aid frameworks to fair rationing mechanisms, and argues that the response must start at the community level because government is not going to lead it.
OUTLINE: Be Prepared for a Lively Discussion
1. The good news on climate (that nobody wants to hear)
NZ is likely to meet its climate targets. Not because of policy. Because the economy is falling off a cliff. Energy price-driven demand destruction is cutting emissions faster than any government programme. Diesel above $4/litre, petrol not far behind. Businesses are closing, freight is contracting, discretionary travel has collapsed. When you can’t afford to burn fuel, you don’t burn fuel. Emissions fall. This is the climate trajectory nobody modelled – involuntary degrowth driven by energy supply disruption and price shock.
2. Why this is happening – the energy supply picture
The Strait of Hormuz closure and the wider Middle East conflict have taken out a significant share of global crude and LNG supply. NZ imports 100% of its refined fuel. 81% comes from refineries processing Middle Eastern crude. We have roughly 18 days of diesel physically onshore. The government’s fuel plan has no volumetric allocations. Force Majeure declarations have cascaded across every link in our supply chain. I’ve been tracking this in detail:
– “The Limits to the Energy Transition” (white paper): https://energyandresilience.substack.com/p/the-limits-to-the-energy-transition
– “Hoping the Ship Arrives Isn’t a Strategy”: https://energyandresilience.substack.com/p/hoping-the-ship-arrives-isnt-a-strategy
– “Every Country in Our Supply Chain Has Declared an Emergency”: https://energyandresilience.substack.com/p/every-country-in-our-supply-chain
3. The default tsunami – the crisis before the shortage
Everyone is watching fuel gauges. But the more immediate shock may be financial. NZ insolvencies were at a 15-year high before Hormuz. Mortgage arrears at an 8-year peak. IRD tax debt past $9 billion. Household debt at 165-170% of disposable income. There was no buffer. When diesel costs flow through to freight, food, fertiliser, and farm input costs, the wave of business failures and mortgage defaults will hit before physical fuel shortages do. I’m publishing a piece on this shortly – “The Default Tsunami” – arguing we’re watching the wrong metric.
4. The deeper structure – biophysical economics
This isn’t a one-off geopolitical shock. It’s the predictable consequence of building a civilisation on a depleting energy resource. EROI decline means we spend more energy to get energy. The economy is an energy system using money, not a financial system using energy. The “seamless transition” narrative assumes the global supply chains, fossil fuel inputs, and critical minerals needed for transition will keep flowing. They are not flowing. Drawing on Hall, Keen, Smil, Hagens, Garrett, Delannoy.
– White paper covers this in depth: https://energyandresilience.substack.com/p/the-limits-to-the-energy-transition
5. What we can do – community resilience and policy
– Wise Response open letter: quantified essential use fuel allocation plan (with Mike Hodgkinson, Laloli Research)
– Tradable Energy Quotas (TEQs) as fair rationing: https://wiseresponse.substack.com (TEQs article)
– “When the Trucks Stop” mutual aid guide https://open.substack.com/pub/wiseresponse/p/what-can-i-do-in-response-to-the
– “No Fuel, Still Fed” https://energyandresilience.substack.com/p/no-fuel-still-fed regional food security framework
– Local action: council deputations, community preparedness networks
– Demand reduction, negawatts, fuel-free pathways
This webinar is organised by Our Climate Declaration
and co-sponsored by:
Degrowth Aotearoa New Zealand
The Wise Response Society
Engineers for Social Responsibility
The Nelson Tasman Climate Forum

Mōhua Golden Bay Resilience Expo
2026-05-02 09:00 - 2026-05-03 16:00 | Rec Park center, 2032 Takaka Valley Hwy, Takaka, New Zealand
Golden Bay locals – this is one you don’t want to miss!
We’re bringing the whole community together for a weekend focused on
**getting prepared, staying safe, and having a great time doing it**.
Events are happening on both Saturday and Sunday, with the Sunday being the big one! A full day of **information, hands-on learning, and community connection**.
More info here or here.
