The Sustainable Business Council (SBC) and Climate Leaders Coalition (CLC) welcome today’s announcement from Government around a bipartisan inquiry into an enduring climate adaptation framework for New Zealand.

SBC and CLC are committed to action on reducing emissions, strengthening New Zealand’s climate resilience, and bringing nature to the forefront. In our 2023 joint pre-election policy priorities paper, we called for bold action from all political parties in order to achieve Aotearoa New Zealand’s ambitious emissions reduction and adaptation goals.

SBC Executive Director Mike Burrell says, "This announcement is consistent with the recommendations we have made in our pre-election policy priorities paper, specifically relating to a multi-party approach to developing an enduring climate adaptation framework for New Zealand."

"Such a framework will be essential to give certainty to both government and the private sector to make the investments and large-scale changes necessary to adapt to a changing climate."

We welcome the cross-party approach of this inquiry, as it will help ensure mitigation and adaption are addressed as two integrated aspects of the climate change challenge and as part of a complementary suite of government policies.

"As we saw with the tragic extreme weather events of 2023, it is clear to all New Zealanders that we are now living with the effects of climate change. This means we need to not only focus on continuing to mitigate our emissions alongside our international partners, but also prepare for a warming world where these kinds of events will become more frequent."

SBC and CLC look forward to working with Government as the inquiry progresses to identify practical steps the private sector could take to build New Zealand’s climate resilience and accelerate our emissions reduction to meet the goal of New Zealand being net zero by 2050.

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