Community is Climate Resilience Webinar
Description
Community is Climate Resilience is a timely webinar exploring how communities responded to the North Island severe weather events of early 2023, and what these experiences can teach us as extreme weather becomes more frequent and more disruptive.
Drawing on the Community is Climate Resilience report published by Environment Hubs Aotearoa in early 2026, this session brings together those who lived the response and those who helped document it.
We will hear from Georgina Morisson and Jen Pannell, who produced the report, alongside community responders Harata (Char) Gibson and Emma Horgan, who played key roles in their regions’ responses and will share what unfolded on the ground during and after the events.
David Hall, co-founder of Toha Network, will also reflect on the potential of new knowledge and digital technologies to enable and empower community-led responses to climate-related impacts.
The webinar explores what worked, what didn’t, and where gaps in official responses were felt most strongly. Rather than focusing solely on systems and institutions, this kōrero highlights the strength, adaptability, and local knowledge that communities bring to crisis response.
As climate-related emergencies increasingly affect communities across Aotearoa, there is an urgent need to learn from those with lived experience. This webinar invites participants to reflect on how community-led knowledge, relationships and preparedness are critical components of climate resilience — now and into the future.
Panelists
Georgina Morrison
Georgina Morrison comes from rural Tararua / Tāmaki-nui-a-ra, and resides on her husband’s family dairy farm near Pahiatua, with their two teenage children. Georgina is currently the Executive Officer for Environment Hubs Aotearoa, and Project Manager for the Zero Waste Aotearoa Food Waste Reduction Programme 'Every Bite'. She holds several local and national governance roles and is passionate about collaboration and local solutions. EHA recently published research on Community is Climate Resilience – Lessons from Cyclone Gabrielle and the Auckland Anniversary Floods.
Jen Pannell
Dr Jen Pannell was born in the UK, and currently resides in Tāhuna (Queenstown). She came to Aotearoa in 2009 to further her studies, where she has lived ever since. She has a PhD in ecology from the Bio-Protection Research Centre, and while her expertise is invasive species and modelling, she has published across multiple disciplines. Jen was the research lead on the EHA report Community is Climate Resilience – Lessons from Cyclone Gabrielle and the Auckland Anniversary Floods and currently consults to for-purpose organisations, providing services in research, data and analysis.
Emma Horgan
Emma Horgan is based in Hawke's Bay, where she has deep roots in environmental leadership, community resilience, and food sovereignty. She is a former CEO of Sustaining Hawke's Bay Trust and Environment Centre Hawke's Bay, and has held board roles with Environment Hubs Aotearoa. Emma brings experience across the community, financial, and regenerative sectors, and has lived experience of Cyclone Gabrielle and its aftermath. Emma has been fortunate enough to have been involved in multiple research projects on cyclone Gabrielle and learnt alot from them.
Harata Gibson
Tena kotou Ko Titirangi te maunga Ko Turanganui te Awa Ko Ngati Oneone te hapu Ko Te Poho o Rawiri te marae Ko Harata Gibson awau. I’m the Chairperson of Te Poho o Rawiri Marae and also Ngati Oneone Hapu. My whanau and I have lived in Kaiti, below Titirangi, all our lives. Being born and raised on Marae has led me to be present in this webinar. Harata and her team supported over a thousand people at Te Poho-o-Rāwiri Marae during Cyclone Gabrielle, ensuring a wide range of needs were met.
David Hall
Dr David Hall is co-founder and executive director of Toha Network which is building digital infrastructure for community-led climate action. He has a DPhil in Politics from University of Oxford, holds the role of Industry Fellow at Auckland University of Technology (AUT), and runs the Transition(s) Lab newsletter. Past roles include Independent Specialist Advisor for the New Zealand Government's Inquiry into Climate Adaptation and Contributing Author to IPCC's Sixth Assessment Report (Working Group 2). He publishes widely – for specialist and general audiences – on climate change policy, community-led resilience, land use, sustainable finance and just transitions.
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