The National Adaptation Plan has been released. Urutau, ka taurikura: Kia tū pakari a Aotearoa i ngā huringa āhuarangi Adapt and thrive: Building a climate-resilient New Zealand – New Zealand’s first national adaptation plan.  This document sets out Aotearoa New Zealand’s long-term strategy and first national adaptation plan. The long-term strategy sets out the Government’s approach to adaptation. This first national adaptation plan, and subsequent plans, will be prepared and implemented in accordance with this strategy.

The first national adaptation plan contains Government-led strategies, policies and proposals that will help New Zealanders adapt to the changing climate and its effects – so we can reduce the potential harm of climate change, as well as seize the opportunities that arise. It responds to the risks identified in the National Climate Change Risk Assessment 2020, which was prepared under the Climate Change Response Act 2002. It also draws upon the latest science from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and builds on recommendations of the Climate Change Adaptation Technical Working Group from 2018.

The plan is missing some key elements like who pays and how the choices in the plan are to be taken.  Greenpeace described the plan as a missed opportunity.

They said the government’s climate change National Adaptation Plan misses the opportunity to make farming more resilient to climate change. The environmental organisation is calling on the Government to regulate the drivers of intensive dairying and support the transition to plant-based regenerative organic farming.

See Greenpeace: Missed Opportunity

Image: Ministry for the Environment