Te Hurihanga Āhuarangi Climate Change
Acting on climate change for a more resilient economy
Acting on climate change is key to supporting the wellbeing, prosperity, and resilience of Aotearoa New Zealand and our people. Budget 2023 continues to position New Zealand to seize the advantages of a low-emissions and climate-resilient economy and helps to support families and households experiencing cost of living pressures.
However, acting on climate change also presents opportunities for New Zealand to improve living standards for our people and make our economy more resilient. Climate action can help us to reduce our reliance on volatile global energy markets, develop new, low-carbon industries, improve the health of our natural environment, and enable a fair and just low-carbon transition.
While we have made progress decarbonising some areas of our economy, there remains significant opportunity to decarbonise others, including areas that are most exposed to future volatility in global energy prices. Measures such as additional domestic renewable energy, improving the energy efficiency of homes and decarbonising private transport and freight are all measures that can help reduce household energy bills, while we make progress toward a low‑emissions economy.
Climate change is already affecting our economic security and wellbeing. It is making extreme weather more frequent, costly, and damaging; and it is placing high burdens on governments, communities, and iwi to prepare for and rebuild after disaster.
The historic flooding in the upper North Island and devastating impacts from Cyclone Gabrielle demonstrate the high economic and personal costs that climate change is placing on New Zealanders. It reminds us of the high stakes we are dealing with in our work to mitigate future climate change and reinforces the importance of strengthening our resilience to expected hazards.
Budget 2023 will help us to better address the risks and realise the opportunities presented by climate change, by supporting households to reduce emissions, accelerating our transition to a low‑emissions and climate-resilient economy and building our resilience to climate change and its impacts.