Committee to investigate climate adaptation
Parliament has agreed to a cross-party investigation into needed adaptation for climate change, with the promise of bipartisan legislation emerging.
The House voted for the inquiry, to be run by Parliament’s finance and expenditure committee, on Thursday afternoon. It would be a second go at such an inquiry into climate adaptation, after an environment committee investigation into the issue was left incomplete after the 2023 election.
“An enduring and long-term approach is needed to provide New Zealanders and the economy with certainty as the climate continues to change,” Climate Change Minister Simon Watts said in a statement.
The impacts of climate change were being felt by New Zealanders, with more frequent and severe storms, floods and slips, he said.
Such disasters were costly, and there was a need to safeguard against and prepare for the impacts of climate change.
The committee’s inquiry, which is likely to include a call for public submissions, and a review of 150 submissions already received by the environment committee, is expected to produce a set of objectives and principles for designing a climate adaptation framework.
This framework would “set out the Government’s approach to sharing the costs of preparing New Zealand” for climate change – outlining, for instance, whether councils will build flood protection, the support available to recover from slips and floods, and how decisions will be made after severe weather events, so “we won’t have to start from scratch every time”, Watts said.
“To find solutions which will be long-lasting, we need broad agreement,” he said.
Labour climate change spokesperson Megan Woods said it was “imperative” to build long-lasting policies that would outlast any one Government.
“To do that, we have to work across the House. We’ve done it before and can do it again.”
Green Party co-leader Chlöe Swarbrick said she commended Watts for “picking up the mantle” left by former climate change minister and Green Party co-leader James Shaw.
“We encourage everyone and their communities, hapū and iwi to get involved with the inquiry to have their say.”
Any legislation to emerge from the inquiry would be introduced into the House in early 2025.