The Case for New Climate Change Adaptation Funding Instruments Technical Report
- Author
- Jonathan Boston, Judy Lawrence
- Year
- 2017
- Publisher / Organisation
- NZ Climate Change Research Institute, Victoria University of Wellington
- Month
- August
- Pages
- 44
- Keywords
- Climate change, adaptation
- Summary
- Adapting to climate change during the 21st century and beyond poses unprecedented technical, administrative and political challenges for which new governance arrangements, planning frameworks and funding instruments will be required.1 In effect, humanity faces a slow-motion disaster which will grow in scope and scale progressively, yet sometimes abruptly. The impacts will include ongoing rising sea levels, more severe droughts, storms and rainfall events, biosecurity risks, loss of biodiversity and changing disease vectors. In New Zealand, for example, the value of assets in coastal areas exposed to sea level rise is estimated to be in the billions of dollars. Equally, the annual cost of repairing land transport networks damaged by weather-related events has more than quadrupled over the past decade, while the economic impact of major floods and droughts is also increasing. Importantly, in this regard, Local Government New Zealand estimates that $1 spent on hazard risk reduction avoids losses and disruption worth at least $3. 2. New Zealand, like other countries, faces significant uncertainties, multiple and compounding risks, large and growing disaster response and adaptation costs, and complex inter-temporal and inter-sectoral trade-offs. With much of its population located within a few kilometres of the sea, increasing coastal erosion and inundation will generate major policy challenges before such areas become uninhabitable. Tens of thousands of people – and perhaps more – will eventually need to be relocated and resettled, and large investments will be required to redesign, reposition and future-proof public infrastructure, especially transport networks and water services. While there are many examples of managed retreat internationally and some in New Zealand, few have approached the scope, scale or complexity that will be required in the future.