Part 1: Introduction

1.1
The estimated costs of mitigating and adapting to the effects of climate change are significant and increasing. The extreme weather events in the North Island in early 2023 demonstrated the destructive impact and costs of severe weather, which is predicted to be more frequent because of climate change.

1.2
It is important that governments are well organised in their approach to climate change. An effective response involves many areas of public policy and action, and public organisations have many roles and responsibilities related to climate change. To support sustained progress, an overarching structure to integrate and co-ordinate these roles and responsibilities is needed.

1.3
The risks need to be identified, strategies need to be comprehensive, and the financial impacts need to be understood and planned for. All of these should be transparent to the public to encourage all parts of society to take action.

1.4
Supreme audit institutions (SAIs) share a mission to develop independent assessments of the use of public resources, the implementation of public policy, and the performance of public organisations.

1.5
ClimateScanner is a rapid assessment methodology that allows SAIs to assess the extent of their countries' adherence to the climate change commitments made under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. More than 100 SAIs are participating in the first global ClimateScanner assessment.

About ClimateScanner

1.6
ClimateScanner was created by the Brazilian Federal Court of Accounts, the current Chair of the International Organisation of Supreme Audit Institutions, in partnership with the Working Group on Environmental Auditing. ClimateScanner was launched in 2022 at the XXIV International Congress of Supreme Audit Institutions.

1.7
An executive group comprising 18 SAIs from around the world (including New Zealand) developed the methodology for ClimateScanner.

1.8
ClimateScanner's purpose is to compile global data about government actions to address climate change. Participating SAIs carry out rapid assessments of their Government's actions using a standardised methodology. They then submit the results of their assessments through an online portal.

1.9
Some preliminary findings will be presented at the 2024 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP29) in November 2024.

1.10
This report summarises the results of our rapid assessment. It provides a broad overview of government actions to respond to climate change and highlights areas for improvement.

How we did the assessment

1.11
The ClimateScanner methodology assesses climate actions against the following three "axes":

• Governance includes assessing whether countries have the government structures, legislation, planning, co-ordination, monitoring, transparency, engagement, and oversight needed to respond to climate change.
• Public policies includes assessing whether countries have policies and strategies that address climate mitigation and adaptation.
• Finance includes assessing whether countries have funding to support mitigation and adaptation actions for responding to climate change and their role in assisting developing countries.

1.12
Figure 1 sets out the categories that are assessed under each axis.

Figure 1
Categories under each axis

* A Nationally Determined Contribution outlines the contributions a country will make to meet the goals of the Paris Agreement.

1.13
Each category has its own set of components, and each component is assessed using two to four criteria. Figure 2 provides an example of a component of the institutionalisation category and its criteria.

Figure 2
The component and criteria under each category

1.14
We used a four-tier scale, based on the level of implementation, to assess each of the criteria and give it a rating. The ratings are:

• no implementation;
• early implementation;
• intermediate implementation; and
• advanced implementation.

1.15
Because ClimateScanner is a rapid assessment methodology, it focuses on whether mechanisms, systems, or policies exist. It does not assess their effectiveness. Therefore, the term "implementation" in this report refers to the existence of certain features for each criterion.

1.16
Figure 3 provides a definition of each rating.

Figure 3
The four-tier rating system for level of implementation

1.17
The average of the scores of all criteria within a component will result in a score for that component. This score will range from 0 to 10.

1.18
These assessments enable us to determine the strengths and weaknesses of New Zealand's response to climate change.

1.19
For the public policies axis, the tool requires us to assess policies for mitigation and adaptation in specific sectors.

1.20
For mitigation, we selected the agriculture, land transport, and energy sectors. We chose these sectors because they had the highest reported emissions (based on 2022 data, which is currently the most recent data available).

1.21
Agriculture is the source of more than 50% of New Zealand's total emissions (53% in 2022). The next highest-emitting sector is the energy sector, which contributes 37% of total emissions (including 17.5% from transport in 2022).⁷

1.22
For adaptation, we looked at the land and ocean ecosystems sector and the disaster risk management sector. We chose these sectors because they related to two of the top 10 risks that the National Adaptation Plan identified.

1.23
For each sector, we considered whether New Zealand has policies that address the main adaptation risks, whether those policies have been translated into specific actions, whether implementation challenges have been identified, and whether there are appropriate monitoring and evaluation mechanisms.

1.24
This report presents the results for New Zealand based on our assessment against the ClimateScanner methodology.

What we looked at to make our assessment

1.25
ClimateScanner mainly focuses on the actions of central government. Therefore, to make our assessment, we collected and reviewed publicly available documents and documents that central government organisations provided. These organisations included:

• the Ministry for the Environment;
• the Department of Conservation;
• the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment;
• the Ministry for Primary Industries;
• the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade;
• the National Emergency Management Agency;
• the Treasury;
• the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet; and
• the Ministry of Transport.

1.26
We also looked at information from the Climate Change Commission and the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment.

What we did not look at

1.27
The ClimateScanner assessment only looks at the actions central government is taking to respond to climate change. That means we did not look at local government actions, except to understand whether there was a mechanism to allow local government and central government organisations to work together to address climate change.⁸

1.28
We also did not look at non-government organisations or private sector organisations. These sectors are outside the ClimateScanner methodology's scope.

1.29
However, we recognise that many organisations play important roles in mitigating and adapting to climate change. Local government is responsible for many adaptation actions (such as flood protection) and both non-government organisations and private sector organisations are critical to supporting the changes that New Zealand needs to make to meet our climate change goals.

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The ClimateScanner is designed to be a rapid assessment. As such, it does not look at the effectiveness of policies and structures to meet our emissions targets. This would need a much deeper assessment, which is not ClimateScanner's purpose.

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However, we might choose to carry out work to look at the effectiveness of public organisations' climate change actions in the future.

1.32
It is important to note that this was an assessment at a point in time. Where relevant, we have noted planned changes to the Government's climate policies (for example, those signalled in the discussion document for the next Emissions Reduction Plan, which is due to be published in late 2024).

1.33
However, because these planned changes are proposals, we did not include them in our formal assessment ratings.

7: Ministry for the Environment (2024), New Zealand's greenhouse gas inventory 1990-2022: Snapshot, at environment.govt.nz.

8: The assessment framework includes questions about mechanisms for co-ordination between central and local government.