Aotearoa New Zealand’s Climate Change Adaptation Act: Building a Durable Future, Principles and Funding for Managed Retreat, Working Paper 1

We live in a climate changing world. Weather-related disasters are becoming increasingly commonplace. We know that such events will increase over time. These changes in the climate place more and more humans and other species in harm’s way. Māori are particularly susceptible to a climate changing world which threatens their connections to land and ecosystems.

To address this unprecedented challenge the Government proposed a new piece of legislation in 2020 called the Climate Adaptation Act. This Act is intended to address the complex and distinctive issues associated with managed retreat such as funding, compensation, land acquisition, liability and insurance.