4 Aug 2022

National Adaption Plan welcomed by locals but want action now

From First Up, 5:15 am on 4 August 2022

Entire New Zealand communities could have to move to higher ground due to climate change. That was a takeaway from a major government report released by Climate Change Minister James Shaw yesterday. The 200 page National Adaption Plan pulls together a "to do" list of about 120 actions.. including new legislation to deal with the detail of managed retreat. It lays out some stark realities; one in seven of us live in areas prone to flooding, that's 675,000 people and about one hundred billion dollars worth of houses. Yesterday's announcement was of great interest to Hawke's Bay environmental activist Keith Newman, who chairs the Walking on Water lobby group which has a keen focus on coastal erosion. He spoke to our producer Matthew Theunissen.