Funding Climate Change Adaptation

the case for a new policy framework

Abstract

Adapting to climate change poses unprecedented technical, administrative and political challenges for which New Zealand’s current planning, regulatory and funding frameworks are illequipped. Without reform, they will deliver neither efficient nor equitable outcomes. Indeed, they will encourage governmental delay, incentivise sub-optimal solutions, increase future burdens, and reduce societal resilience. For sound anticipatory governance, our current frameworks need reform. This article summarises the nature of the adaptation challenges facing New Zealand, outlines the problems with current policy settings, identifies principles and considerations that should guide the reform agenda, and reviews several policy options. On balance, we favour creating a new national institution mandated to fund or co-fund, in accordance with statutory criteria, the major costs of adaptation.