Aotearoa New Zealand’s first National Adaptation Plan (NAP) published 3 August 2022

NAP for housing and urban areas in New Zealand

As the climate changes – and as New Zealand also changes – how we adapt will also have to change. This NAP covers the next six years to 2028 and will be followed by further adaptation plans in the future. It deals with a wide range of areas, from the natural environment to the economy, and will also have significant, wide-ranging implications for housing and urban development in Aotearoa New Zealand. Climate change poses significant risks to houses and buildings in New Zealand. Many were located without ongoing climate change in mind and were built to perform for the climate as it was when they were constructed. As the climate changes, it will pose greater and greater risks to the physical structure of our homes, buildings, and places, and to the people and communities who inhabit them. Successful adaptation to the impacts of climate hazards is vital for the future prosperity of Aotearoa New Zealand.

The NAP is available on the Ministry for the Environment website – LINK

Te Tūāpapa Kura Kāinga Ministry of Housing and Urban Development’s involvement

Te Tūāpapa Kura Kāinga – Ministry of Housing and Urban Development is one of the agencies which contributed to the NAP. Working alongside the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment and the Ministry of Culture and heritage, our main focus is to increase the resilience of our homes, buildings and places to climate change.

To do that, our actions in the NAP are designed to achieve the following goals:

• Homes and buildings are climate resilient and meet a social and cultural needs - e.g. ensuring that homes and buildings can withstand a wider range of climatic conditions and so continue to fulfil their social roles.
• New and existing places are planned and managed to minimise risks to communities from climate change – e.g. improving resilience through effective planning, urban design and management and so reducing the need for costly adaptation or relocation in the future.
• Māori connections to whenua and places of cultural value are strengthened through partnerships - e.g. working in partnership to support Māori-led adaptation solutions, and support initiatives to identify and respond to climate risks specific to Māori.
• Threats to cultural heritage arising from climate change are understood and impacts minimised - e.g. understanding where cultural heritage sites are, how they are valued, and how climate change could affect them.

Our actions to achieve these goals are embedded across four chapters: chapter 3, which deals with the provision of information, chapter 4, which deals with driving climate-resilient development in the right places, chapter 5 on adaptation options including managed retreat, and chapter 7, which deals directly with homes, buildings and places.

Across these four chapters, HUD is a lead agency for seven actions:

• Reduce and manage the impacts of climate hazards on homes and buildings (research and guidance) (Joint lead with MBIE)
• Update housing and urban settings
• Embed adaptation in funding models for housing and urban development, including Māori housing
• Identify options to increase the integration of nature-based solutions into urban form
• Work with community housing providers (including Māori housing providers) to enable effective climate hazard response
• Partner with Māori to support Māori-led approaches to adaptation planning
• Partner with Māori land owners to increase the resilience of Māori-owned land, homes and cultural sites

This plan focuses on how we are addressing the impacts of climate change that are unavoidable, but we are also working to prevent further climate change impacts from eventuating through Aotearoa New Zealand’s first emissions reduction plan(external link).

In implementing New Zealand’s response to climate change, Government will seek to maintain and strengthen partnerships with iwi and Māori and to co-develop adaptation measures that help Māori achieve their housing aspirations, protect their taonga and maintain a connection to their whenua. Meaningful engagement with communities and our sector stakeholders will also be essential to ensure the development and implementation of actions is effective and enduring.  

We will develop an engagement plan to reach out to relevant stakeholders as the actions are implemented over the next six years.  

If you have any questions or would like to be kept informed of future progress you can contact us at climatechange@hud.govt.nz.