This all makes us especially vulnerable to climate-related hazards. That is why a key focus at next month’s Climate Change and Business Conference is emerging legislation to address adaptation: a Climate Adaptation Act.

This has been in the works for some time, with an Expert Working Group on Managed Retreat established under the previous government providing recommendations in August 2023, a Select Committee Inquiry into Climate Adaptation reporting in October 2024, and an Independent Reference Group on Climate Adaptation providing further recommendations in July 2025.

Taking decisive action is becoming more urgent as weather events ramp up. In less than three years we have seen the devastating Auckland Floods in January 2023, Cyclone Gabrielle in February 2023, the East Coast floods in June 2024, Northland’s Cyclone Tam in April 2025, and Tasman flooding in July 2025. Flooding and slips are currently the biggest risk, but coastal erosion will start to bite as sea levels inexorably rise.

A bill on climate adaptation is expected before the year end. This can be seen as the third element in the government’s resource management reforms (after the Natural Environment and Planning Acts) but unlike the other two, it is likely to garner cross-party support. Part of the reason for that is it is unlikely to do much.

Addressing climate impacts raises fiendishly difficult issues around the affordability and availability of insurance, when to protect vulnerable communities and when to move them, who decides and who pays for it all.

The recent recommendations of the Independent Reference Group place much reliance on the market sorting things out. It proposes there be no property buyouts after a transition period and that a ‘beneficiary pays’ approach be applied to risk reduction measures. This means that communities will likely be expected to fund their own protective structures, such as stop banks and sea walls, and if unaffordable they will need to find other ways to adjust to the hazard risk.

On top of these challenges, we seem unable to address the urgent need to stop building in at-risk places. A National Environmental Standard could immediately ban new developments in flood plains and other risky areas but is not on the government’s agenda.

Instead a softly-softly approach has been taken in the recent proposed National Policy Statement for Natural Hazards. This applies a risk-based approach to managing natural hazards, which in itself is not a bad thing, but it prescribes that land use controls be “proportionate” to the level of natural hazard risk. Past history with the Resource Management Act has shown that use of fuzzy words like ‘proportionate’ make it very difficult for councils to say no to well-resourced developers.

The Environmental Defence Society, (one of the co-organisers of the Climate Change and Business Conference alongside the Sustainable Business Council and Climate Leaders Coalition), is undertaking a major project looking at how the country can better respond to increasing climate-induced risks. This follows on from a report setting out design recommendations for a Climate Adaptation Act which was published in May 2024. The current project is doing a deep dive into causes and responses to natural hazard events along with the evolution of hazard science and policy, and the role of the property market, lenders and insurers. It will also be looking closely at international exemplars that we can learn from.

The sessions on adaptation will be of special interest to district and regional council staff and members, along with infrastructure providers, who are on the front line of responding to weather disasters. To see the programme and register go to www.climateandbusiness.com.