Part 2: Overview of results

2.1
In this Part, we provide an overview of the results of our ClimateScanner assessment of New Zealand's response to climate change. We set out the results under ClimateScanner's three main axes, which are:

• governance;
• public policies; and
• finance.

Governance

2.2
The ClimateScanner methodology assesses good climate governance against 10 components. These include whether the country has in place relevant government structures, legislation, planning, co-ordination, monitoring, transparency, wider engagement, and oversight. New Zealand met most of the ClimateScanner's criteria for good climate governance.

2.3
New Zealand has relevant governance structures to respond to climate change, including legislation, an independent Climate Change Commission, and a public sector interdepartmental executive board focused on climate change issues. Several strategies and plans related to climate change have also been prepared and are current.

2.4
The Climate Change Response Act 2002 (the Act) provides a clear legislative framework for responding to climate change. It references the Paris Agreement's target to limit the global average temperature increase to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels.

2.5
There are clear roles and responsibilities for leading, co-ordinating, and carrying out the Government's response to climate change.

2.6
New Zealand has arrangements to monitor the progress towards emissions reduction targets and climate change adaptation. The Climate Change Commission must report publicly on progress in implementing the two key strategies: the Emissions Reduction Plan and the National Adaptation Plan.

2.7
However, the Climate Change Commission only published its first reports on the progress of these plans in July and August 2024 respectively. Therefore, it is too early for us to assess how the Government will use these reports' findings to inform future policy-making.

2.8
We found that improvements could also be made in other areas.

2.9
In 2015, New Zealand signed up to Transforming our world: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (the 2030 Agenda), which sets out 17 Sustainable Development Goals to be achieved by 2030. Climate action is one of these goals.

2.10
The ClimateScanner methodology asks whether the long-term strategy or planning documents for reducing emissions refer to the Sustainable Development Goals.

2.11
Although the climate actions in the Emissions Reduction Plan align with the Sustainable Development Goals to some extent, we found no specific references to them in the long-term strategy or planning documents for reducing emissions. This resulted in an overall low rating for the long-term strategy.

2.12
There is good co-ordination between central government agencies in planning for climate change. However, more could be done to improve co-ordination between central and local government.

2.13
Membership institutions such as Local Government New Zealand and Taituarā – Local Government Professionals Aotearoa engage with central government on climate change mitigation and adaptation. However, we did not find any formal mechanisms for central and local government to co-ordinate on climate action (such as a law, regulation, or agreement for joint policy formulation or implementation).

Public policies

2.14
The ClimateScanner methodology assesses public policies that address climate change against five components. These include having established international commitments, overall strategies for mitigation and adaptation, and mitigation and adaptation plans and strategies for significant sectors.

2.15
We found that New Zealand has clear international commitments and has developed national mitigation and adaptation strategies. However, some of New Zealand's sector-specific plans and strategies are less advanced.

2.16
The Paris Agreement requires countries to prepare, communicate, and maintain successive Nationally Determined Contributions. Each successive Nationally Determined Contribution is required to show progress and reflect the highest possible ambition.

2.17
New Zealand has met this requirement. New Zealand updated our Nationally Determined Contribution in November 2021. This set a headline target of a 50% reduction of net emissions below our gross 2005 level by 2030. This is a more ambitious target than the previous Nationally Determined Contribution from 2016.

2.18
New Zealand also has national strategies for climate change mitigation (the Emissions Reduction Plan) and adaptation (the National Adaptation Plan). When we looked at specific sectors we found mixed progress in how the actions in these plans are being implemented.

2.19
We looked at three specific sectors (agriculture, land transport, and energy) to understand what mitigation actions are taking place in those sectors. There are detailed strategies and plans for the key mitigation actions in the agriculture and land transport sectors, including clear objectives and plans for monitoring and evaluation.

2.20
However, the mitigation plans for agriculture focus on research and development, and we cannot yet see a clear pathway between these plans and actual emissions reduction. Key actions in the energy sector are at an early stage and lack detail about how they will lead to reductions in emissions.

2.21
To understand what adaptation actions are taking place, we looked at two sectors (land and ocean ecosystems and disaster risk management) and selected a sample of actions set out in the National Adaptation Plan.

2.22
We found a detailed plan for one of the high-level actions for addressing land and ocean ecosystems adaptation, but progress on this has been slower than planned. This was the action to implement the Department of Conservation's Climate Change Adaption Action Plan.

2.23
We did not see the same level of detailed planning for the two other actions we looked at in this sector. These two actions were to implement the Water Availability and Security programme (which the Ministry for Primary Industries is responsible for) and to implement the National Policy Statement on Freshwater Management 2020 (which the Ministry for the Environment is responsible for).

2.24
The National Adaptation Plan's main responses to disaster risk management are to implement the National Disaster Resilience Strategy, modernise the emergency management system, and develop the emergency management workforce. There has been mixed progress on these actions so far.

2.25
One of the assessment criteria looks at whether implementation challenges to adaptation actions have been identified and understood. We did not find evidence that government organisations have identified implementation challenges for their planned actions in the land and ocean ecosystems or disaster risk management sectors.

Climate finance

2.26
For climate finance, the ClimateScanner methodology requires us to assess whether the Government is managing the resources it has committed for supporting developing countries, whether budgetary instruments are aligned with domestic climate goals, and whether different types of climate finance are tracked and reported on.

2.27
The Paris Agreement states that developed countries should provide financial assistance to developing countries, while also encouraging other parties to make voluntary contributions.

2.28
In its fifth Biennial report,⁹ New Zealand set out its commitment to providing $1.3 billion between 2022 and 2025, including $800 million of "new and additional" climate finance. The funding's aim is to support developing countries to meet their climate objectives.

2.29
New Zealand allocates its international climate funding to specific programmes in its International Development Co-operation programme, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade regularly reports on these programmes. This reporting confirms that progress is being made against the 2022-25 commitment. The Ministry also told us that it expects to fully deliver on this commitment.

2.30
However, at a domestic level, it is not possible to see a clear alignment between funding committed to responding to climate change and the Government's domestic climate change goals. New Zealand also does not currently have a definition for climate finance or a taxonomy that enables public organisations to tag finance related, either directly or indirectly, to climate change.

2.31
As a result, it is difficult to track and report on domestic climate finance. The Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment has recommended that public organisations tag all their spending on environmental outcomes to allow this tracking.

2.32
The Government has some mechanisms to mobilise private climate finance for mitigation and adaptation activities. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade is in the process of setting up a portfolio of international climate finance activities aimed at mobilising private climate finance for developing countries.

2.33
This is essential if the Government is to continue to meet its domestic and international commitments.

2.34
The Emissions Trading Scheme is the Government's main tool for encouraging private investment in reducing domestic emissions. However, a recent Climate Change Commission report assessing progress towards reducing emissions highlighted uncertainties with the scheme's effectiveness in encouraging investment in reducing emissions because of its design.¹⁰ A 2023 discussion document on a review of the Emissions Trading Scheme also acknowledges these uncertainties.¹¹

9: New Zealand releases Biennial reports every two years as part of our obligation to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. The most recent report was released in December 2022.

10: Climate Change Commission (2024), Monitoring report: Emissions reduction – Assessing progress towards meeting Aotearoa New Zealand's emissions budgets and the 2050 target, at climatecommission.govt.nz.

11: Ministry for the Environment, Ministry for Primary Industries, and Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (2023), Review of the New Zealand Emissions Trading Scheme: Discussion document, at environment.govt.nz.