Councils will be required by law to plan how high-risk communities will prepare for the impacts of climate change as part of proposed changes to the Climate Change Response Act.
On Wednesday, the Government introduced the Climate Change Response Amendment Bill, with Climate Change Minister Simon Watts saying the changes would “reduce unnecessary costs and duplication, provide greater certainty, and enable us to focus our efforts more effectively”.
“This legislation delivers one of the key actions under our National Adaptation Framework to help New Zealand manage growing climate risks. It includes requiring adaption planning in the highest-risk areas and is part of our plan to build for the future."
“For the first time, councils will be required by law to plan how high-risk communities will prepare for the impacts of climate change. Some councils are already working well with their communities to adapt, but this is inconsistent across the country," Watts says.
He says plans will need to cover at least 30 years and set out the sequence of actions and investment needed to manage climate-driven natural hazard risks over time.
“This gives communities clarity, reduces risks early, and helps avoid higher long-term costs.”
The Government says other changes in the Bill include “strengthening market governance of the NZ Emissions Trading Scheme (NZ ETS) secondary market, to improve transparency and integrity” and “improving the operation of the NZ ETS, including fixing disincentives to invest in decarbonisation, and providing a future route for new types of carbon removals, or new emissions sources (but not agriculture), to be added to the NZ ETS”.
Watts says the Climate Change Response Act and the NZ ETS are “our key tools to transition New Zealand to a low-emissions, resilient future”.
“It’s critical that they’re working smoothly to deliver emissions reductions and help us meet our climate targets. That’s why we’re making changes like strengthening oversight of the NZ ETS market.”
Watts says: "These changes ensure our climate framework remains efficient, practical, and focused on results.”
Value for money
This announcement comes after Watts recently directed officials to undertake a stocktake of local government climate-related planning and investment.
In a recently-released letter, Watts, who is also Minister of Local Government, wrote that he wanted councils to make climate-related decisions that are "proportionate, evidence-based, and represent value for money."
"The Government is increasingly concerned that some climate-related planning and investment decisions may be relying on high-end emissions scenarios in a way that results in unnecessary costs being imposed on ratepayers, businesses, and communities," said Watts.
He said he has directed government officials to undertake a stocktake of current council practices. Additionally officials are to; "provide advice on whether extra national direction, reporting requirements or legislative changes are needed to “ensure climate-related decisions appropriately balance resilience, affordability, and value for money for ratepayers."
"The Government's expectation is clear: councils should plan for climate risks, but they must also plan for affordability."
1 Comments
You gotta feel sorry for them.
The exhausts of their quest for unlimited growth are biting them in the bum. And that is only one aspect of several.
'He says plans will need to cover at least 30 years'
Given that the design lifetime of structures is 50-100 years, he's dead right. That means abandoning South Dunedin, for instance (it is indefensible in that timeframe).
Also they seem to be confused as to the removal of the 'most extreme' posit scenario.
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