NZ’s Climate Risk Assessment Report Base for Adaptation Plans

“Our climate is warming, sea levels are rising, and extreme weather is becoming more frequent and severe.” -National Climate Change Risk Assessment for New Zealand, August 2020.

The Ministry for the Environment (MFE) released a report on New Zealand’s first climate risk assessments. The risk assessment report gives a national picture of what New Zealand faces from climate change, identifies the risks and opportunities, and helps the government prioritise climate actions.

The basis for this report is the Arotakenga Huringa Āhuarangi: A Framework for the National Climate Risk Assessment for Aotearoa, New Zealand. A panel of experts on climate change, risk assessments, and vulnerability assessments prepared this framework to evaluate risks and opportunities from climate change.  Results from this will be helpful to local governments and other organisations that are also doing risk assessments.

The risk assessment was conducted for over nine months by a multi-disciplinary team led by AECOM – a global infrastructure firm, Tonkin and Taylor, a New Zealand-based environmental and engineering consultancy, and New Zealand’s National Institute of Water and Atmosphere Research (NIWA), and experts from various sectors such as the government, economy, human resource, built environment, and natural environment.

The NCCRA’s findings will be the basis for New Zealand’s climate adaptation plan, developed within the next two years. The plan will set out climate actions starting from areas and sectors with the highest risk of climate hazards.

The climate change risk assessment finds 43 priority risks across five domains: natural environment, human, economy, built environment, and governance. From these 43 priority risks, the report highlighted the top 10 most significant hazards that need urgent action in the six years.

The NCCRA report comes in four forms:

• (1) A Summary of the main report, which is only 12 pages. It contains the report’s gist and is designed for quick and easy reading. Below is the link to the summary report
• (2) the main report, which is 133 pages;
• (3) The technical report, which is 245 pages long, complements the main report and provides further details on the assessment report’s findings.
• (4) The 73-page Method report shows how the assessment was carried out, the engagements, and the results. It is available on the MTF website.

This report will be significant to New Zealanders as they will see firsthand the effects of climate change contextualised in their cities, towns, and communities. It will help them build resilience and adapt to the inevitable consequences of climate change, starting with the most vulnerable areas and sectors.

Read the entire report by clicking on the button below: