Keeping Aotearoa safe and prepared
The Green Party will prepare all New Zealanders for the impacts of climate change.
We will ensure that everyone is comprehensively supported through both the transition to a zero emissions economy and increasingly severe weather events like cyclones.
Climate change is one of the biggest challenges of our time. Across Aotearoa, we are already feeling the impacts of more intense and frequent storms, flooding and drought with devastating consequences.
Marae and community groups are often on the frontlines of the emergency and clean-up response, but these groups are not supported by the Government to proactively plan and adapt.
People are worried — about rising insurance prices, and what happens when disaster strikes, particularly those living in increasingly flood and slip exposed areas. They have not received any clarity from the Government about help that might be available down the track when they need it.
Climate change means that some areas are not safe to build in, nor to keep living in, and so retreat is the only safe option in the long term. But again, the Government has failed to help communities facing this uncertain future with any support, plans or guidance.
The Green Party will provide this much-needed clarity.
We will ensure that any National Adaptation Framework is anchored by Te Tiriti o Waitangi. We will support the autonomy and self-determination of hapū, iwi and community organisations to develop and implement their own climate change response plans.
The Green Party will ensure that local government and communities are comprehensively funded to respond to their climate adaptation challenges.
Our plan
- Ensure climate adaptation planning affirms tino rangatiratanga and upholds the mana motuhake of whānau, hapū and iwi over whenua, wai and taonga by appropriately funding a Māori Climate Resilience Fund.
- Expand the role of the Natural Hazards Commission to include cover for climate-related weather events and ensure it plays a key role in managing community-led adaptation and retreat.
- Prioritise long-term, nature-based solutions over short-term engineering solutions, and increase funding for hapū, iwi and community organisations to deliver these.
- Ensure planning frameworks give effect to the need for climate adaptation in the approach to land and water use, together with supporting ecosystem restoration and conservation.
- Establish a dedicated fund for central and local government to implement climate adaptation and resilience measures, including funding for partnerships with tangata whenua and community organisations.
- Scale up support for, and work with, neighbouring countries in the Pacific to adapt to climate change, and advocate for an international agreement on the rights of people displaced by climate change.