At a glance: Assessing adaptation progress (2024)

He Pou a Rangi Climate Change Commission (the Commission) is tasked under the Climate Change Response Act 2002 (the Act) to independently report on the progress of the Government’s national adaptation plan.

This 2024 report is the first in what will be a repeating series of two-yearly reports assessing adaptation progress. These independent assessments will build into a series of snapshots that will form a picture over time of how Aotearoa New Zealand is tracking towards its climate change adaptation goals. As required under the Act, these reports focus on evaluating the implementation and effectiveness of the first national adaptation plan.

Our first report comes at an early stage in the implementation of the first national adaptation plan, where results of action will, in many cases, take years to play out.

Our approach to this assessment acknowledges this, placing a particular focus on the quality of the plan itself and whether it has the potential to drive effective adaptation. This is an important part of our assessment of the plan’s effectiveness.

We also assess how implementation of the actions in the plan is progressing, and what early progress can be observed towards achieving the plan’s 20 objectives. Our assessment also identifies barriers to the plan’s implementation and effectiveness, and recommends how those might be overcome.

This summary provides an ‘at a glance’ view of the key findings from our assessment and lists the Commission’s recommendations.

Chapter 3 sets out the findings and recommendations in full, while Part B of this report presents the supporting evidence.

Key findings from our assessment

Climate change risks are significant and rising, and remain insufficiently addressed by adaptation action in Aotearoa New Zealand. The Commission finds limited evidence that the first national adaptation plan is driving adaptation at the scale or pace needed.

The widespread impacts of climate change in Aotearoa New Zealand have increasing costs across the economy, the environment and society. Proactive action is needed to make communities safer and better places to live and work as the climate changes. However, there is limited evidence that the first national adaptation plan is driving adaptation to climate change at the scale or pace needed.

High priority areas for urgent action to set foundations for effective adaptation

Clarifying roles, responsibilities and processes for planning and decision-making will help Aotearoa New Zealand appropriately respond to adaptation challenges and opportunities.

Existing legislative, planning, and decision-making frameworks are not well-suited to planning for and dealing with changing and uncertain risks from climate change.

The lack of a clear and coherent national framework for adaptation planning and implementation has significant and wide-ranging flow-on effects. The recent announcement of the Finance and Expenditure Committee’s inquiry to develop an adaptation framework is an encouraging development.

Clearly setting out how the costs of adaptation and climate-related losses will be shared, and how they will be paid for, will help enable Aotearoa New Zealand to adapt in a more efficient, fair and equitable way.

There is currently no national funding framework for climate adaptation, and no clarity around how adaptation costs will be met. Adaptation in Aotearoa New Zealand is delayed because it is not clear how it will be paid for.

Progress in developing a national funding framework for adaptation has been slow, but recent developments are encouraging. For adaptation to be effective, there needs to be more focus on funding prevention and risk avoidance. New instruments for investing public funds and leveraging private investment in adaptation are also needed.

Ensuring iwi/Māori retain rangatiratanga and can adapt their communities in a way that is consistent with their tikanga, and aligned with their whakaaro tau (priorities) will make adaptation efforts more effective.

Rangatiratanga is important across all facets of climate change response, but it is particularly important in adaptation. Current legislative arrangements are impacting the ability of some iwi/Māori to exercise rangatiratanga and mana motuhake as they adapt and build resilience to climate change. 

Data, information and decision-support tools that are high quality, readily accessible and underpinned by science and research are important for enabling decision makers to effectively understand and manage climate risks.

Data, information and decision-support tools are critical for understanding climate risks, what they mean for communities, sectors, or local businesses, and how to adapt to them.

There is progress under the first national adaptation plan on actions that could increase the availability and accessibility of data and information, and provide tools and guidance for supporting risk-informed decision-making. However, underlying issues with the science and research system need to be addressed.

For all New Zealanders to thrive as the country adapts to climate change, it will be important to consistently consider and address equity of impacts (including costs) so that they are not experienced unfairly by particular communities and groups.

The impacts from climate change will not be distributed evenly. At the same time, decisions around adaptation and dealing with loss are often being made in an ad hoc and reactive way.

The first national adaptation plan does not strongly focus on supporting equity or on addressing how impacts are spread across different regions, sectors, communities and generations. Without a clearer and more direct focus on issues of equity, it may fall through the cracks.

To support communities around Aotearoa New Zealand to adapt to the impacts of climate change, more people with the right knowledge, skills and expertise right across the adaptation planning and implementation process will be needed.

Having access to people with the necessary knowledge, skills and expertise is critical to support adaptation planning and action. The first national adaptation plan is driving some progress in addressing this issue. Some important gaps remain.

Important areas of focus for improving national adaptation planning

The first national adaptation plan does not present a clear and coherent plan of action to drive change at the scale and pace required. A more strategic approach to adaptation planning, and to the development of all national adaptation plans, is needed.

Clearer links are needed between climate change risk and impacts, long-term adaptation strategy, and actions in the plan. Timeliness and urgency need to be carefully considered in plans.

Our assessment has identified some improvements that can be made to national adaptation planning to support effective monitoring, transparency, and continual learning and improvement within a dynamic environment.

Some aspects of the first national adaptation plan support accountability and effective monitoring. There are several areas where future plans could be improved:

• The national adaptation plan can be made a living document.
• More precise and outcomes-focused goals and objectives can be identified.
• The delivery milestones for actions in the plan could be made clearer.
• Specific, measurable outcome targets and milestones could be included in the plan.

Our recommendations

Recommendation 1: Enable effective local adaptation planning and action

We recommend that, in the adaptation framework, the Government set out:

• (a) a clear legislative mandate for adaptation planning and action at the local level. The adaptation framework needs to include legal requirements and statutory backing that enables local government to make effective, risk-informed decisions around land use and the natural and built environment that can be implemented.
• (b) clear roles and responsibilities at national and local levels. This includes setting out the respective roles of central and local government, as well as others making decisions on climate adaptation including communities, iwi/Māori, private property owners, insurers and financial institutions.
• (c) clear and inclusive processes and methods for adaptation planning and decision-making. This includes setting out standard processes for key aspects of adaptation planning and action, and how decisions will be made with respect to those processes. This is important for ensuring that approaches across the country meet a consistent standard of robustness, while being appropriate within their local contexts.

We recommend that each of these elements be set out for the following specific processes and areas:

• (d) local community adaptation planning. This includes guidance on how to account for local values and risk thresholds to inform adaptation planning, and clarity around the respective roles and responsibilities of regional councils, territorial authorities, private property owners and iwi/Māori in local community adaptation planning processes and implementation.
• (e) planning for managed retreat. This includes specifying the circumstances under which managed retreat is considered as an adaptation option, how it should be planned for, and the powers for enabling retreat, such as the acquisition and retirement of land, and withdrawal of infrastructure services.
• (f) the development, collection and communication of risk information. This includes the factors set out in Recommendation 4.

Recommendation 2: Provide clarity on how adaptation costs will be shared and met

We recommend that the adaptation framework set out clearly:

• (a) how the costs of local adaptation planning and implementation will be shared. This includes between central government, regional councils and territorial authorities, as well as private property owners. This must include clarity around how costs will be shared for:
  • (i) adaptation planning (including community planning processes)
  • (ii) the implementation and monitoring of adaptation actions, including pre-emptive actions and post-event responses.
• b) how costs of climate-related losses will be addressed and met. This includes clarity around how both public and private losses will be addressed, and the principles that will guide decisions around compensation. This should include clarity around the costs associated with managed retreat.

To meet future adaptation costs, we recommend that the adaptation framework also set out:

• (c) new targeted funding and financing instruments (public and private) to enable and drive pre-emptive adaptation at the scale needed
• (d) how targeted financial instruments could support adaptation
• (e) how private investments can effectively account for risks arising from climate change while supporting inclusive and equitable processes and outcomes.

Recommendation 3: Ensure iwi/Māori can plan for and carry out adaptation action

We recommend that the legislative framework and institutional arrangements for adaptation include a range of decision-making and funding models, established by central and local government in partnership with iwi/Māori, so that iwi/Māori can plan, carry out and participate in adaptation processes in line with their tikanga and whakaaro tau (priorities).

Recommendation 4: Improve the science and research system to support good adaptation outcomes

We recommend that the Government develop a research strategy for climate adaptation and its data and information needs, and set out a plan for enabling the science and research system to deliver high-quality data and information for public benefit, and to support good climate adaptation outcomes. This includes:

• (a) investing in increasing the availability and accessibility of high-quality data, information and decision-support tools relevant to climate adaptation
• (b) reviewing the revenue model for publicly funded science and research to better support public benefit
• (c) exploring how best to provide continuity in funding for important climate change research and ongoing data and monitoring needs
• (d) reviewing how public-good science and research funded by the Government is made publicly available.

Recommendation 5: Consider and address the distributional costs and impacts of climate change so that they do not fall unfairly on particular communities and groups

We recommend that the Government put in place tools and measures to consistently consider and address distributional impacts and inequities in all adaptation measures. This includes:

• (a) developing tools for assessing and understanding the impacts of adaptation policies and measures across different communities and groups
• (b) implementing targeted measures and ongoing processes to address distributional impacts and inequities resulting from climate impacts and adaptation.

Recommendation 6: Prepare a strategy and plan to develop the climate adaptation workforce

We recommend that the Government prepare a strategy and plan to develop workforce needs related to climate adaptation, and identify the skills and capacity to be developed through the education system, across key professional bodies, and within the science and research system. This should include the needs for:

• (a) iwi/Māori involvement in adaptation design, planning and implementation
• (b) local community adaptation planning and engagement
• (c) emergency preparedness and response.

Recommendation 7: Facilitate access, availability and sharing of resources, expertise and information

We recommend that the Government investigate options to pool and coordinate information and resources to facilitate access, availability, and sharing of expertise and information to support local adaptation planning and action.

Recommendation 8: Make the direction, scale and pace of change required clear

We recommend that, in all national adaptation plans, the Government:

• (a) identify measurable, time-bound and outcomes-focused targets for adaptation, to make the direction, pace and scale of change needed clear, and help to drive action needed – this should include targets for the short, medium and long term, and cover all outcome areas of the national adaptation plan
• (b) clearly communicate how and to what extent the package of actions in the plan will address the risks identified through the national climate change risk assessment
• (c) describe how the package of actions in the plan aligns with adaptation principles, and will avoid maladaptation.

Recommendation 9: Make improvements to support monitoring, and continual learning and improvement within a dynamic environment

We recommend that the Government:

• (a) update the table of actions from the national adaptation plan every two years, recognising that climate impacts, and Aotearoa New Zealand’s adaptation response, need to be dynamic
  • (i) The updated table of actions should reflect updated milestones for when actions will be delivered, as well as discontinued actions.
  • (ii) Delivery milestones for adaptation actions should be clear and specific. This is important for providing clarity and transparency around when these actions will be delivered.
• (b) establish a transparent process for updating the table of actions, which may require enabling changes to legislation
• (c) make national adaptation plan goals and objectives specific, measurable, timebound and outcomes-focused so they can be effectively monitored against. Goals and objectives should have associated outcomes-focused targets for different timeframes – short, medium and long term.

For more information, see the following sections of the report

Part A provides an overview and summary, including the report’s purpose and context (Chapter 1); the approach taken to this assessment (Chapter 2); and a step-by-step presentation of our findings with related recommendations (Chapter 3).

Part B provides the evidence for our findings, including Chapter 4: Te pae tawhiti, te pae tata, which collates our analysis from a te ao Māori perspective; the review of quality of the plan (Chapters 5–7); assessment of progress on implementation (Chapter 8); and progress towards delivering the plan’s objectives (Chapter 9).

The full report and supporting documents are available on this page: Progress report: National Adaptation Plan (August 2024)