What each party is saying about preparing for climate change
Representatives from National, Labour, the Greens, the Opportunity Party, New Zealand First and ACT set out their plans for dealing with climate change at a conference at Te Papa in Wellington on 20 August 2026 (RNZ). The cross-party panel was part of a two-day annual conference run by the Aotearoa Society of Adaptation Professionals, co-branded with RUA (Wellington Scoop).
The conference was about climate adaptation — that is, preparing for the effects of climate change, like rising seas, heavier floods, and more extreme weather, rather than trying to stop those changes from happening.
Climate Change Minister Simon Watts, who is also a registered paramedic, spoke for National. He said the party's focus is on practical steps, planning ahead, and giving New Zealanders certainty about the future. Watts pointed to the National Adaptation Framework as a long-term plan to help communities prepare. He said that if re-elected, National would create national standards for river gravel extraction and other on-farm quarrying to make resilience projects easier.
River gravel extraction is the removal of gravel from riverbeds, which can help with flood control but has caused friction between councils and landowners over who can do it and under what rules.
Labour's climate change spokesperson Deborah Russell stood in for her party. She told the conference that leader Chris Hipkins would announce a climate adaptation policy 'in due course'. Russell outlined the funding approach Labour is working towards: a mix of beneficiary pays (people who benefit from the work chip in), exacerbator pays (those who contribute to the problem pay more), and public pays (government funding). This would involve central and local government, plus banks and insurance companies.
Russell also pointed to work the previous Labour government had done. That government commissioned a report from an expert group on managed retreat — the planned relocation of communities away from areas at high risk from flooding or sea-level rise. The current government set that report aside. Russell noted that Parliament's Finance and Expenditure committee carried out an inquiry into climate adaptation that the government largely ignored. She added that an independent reference group set up by the government recommended that the beneficiary of any adaptation work should pay.
The conference gave each party a chance to set out their position before the 2026 general election, but what was on offer varied. National came with specific commitments. Labour sent a spokesperson rather than its leader and said its full policy was still to come.
The broader context is that adaptation has usually taken a back seat to reducing emissions in political priority, partly because the costs are spread out and the people who benefit are often not yet born. The inquiry and the managed retreat report Russell mentioned both came from an earlier round of attention to the issue. The fact that both were set aside by the current government, as Russell tells it, raises the question of whether any adaptation plan can survive a change of government.
Watts's pitch for national standards on river gravel extraction is a small but telling detail. Gravel management affects flood resilience, roads, and rural consenting, and has been a source of friction between councils and landowners. National standards would take what is currently a patchwork of regional-council rules and make it consistent nationwide. Whether that becomes a prominent campaign commitment or stays a conference-room detail will depend on how National frames its wider adaptation plan.
For Labour, the gap between Russell's outline and an actual policy is the immediate weakness. The beneficiary-pays, exacerbator-pays, public-pays approach is a way of thinking about funding, not a finished plan. Until Hipkins fills in the detail, Labour's adaptation pitch is a framework without a building.
The Greens, the Opportunity Party, New Zealand First and ACT each had their own positions on the panel. The Greens have flagged tax reform, protecting waterways, and energy reform as their first three headline policies for the 2026 election (Green Party). The Opportunity Party has announced its party list for the 2026 election (Opportunity Party, Facebook). Labour's wider 2026 policy priorities include making healthcare more affordable, cutting the cost of getting around, growing the economy, and delivering results (Labour Party).
The conference itself is the annual gathering of the Aotearoa Society of Adaptation Professionals, co-branded with RUA, and this year brought together practitioners, policymakers, and political figures across two days at Te Papa. The programme was published in late July (ASAP, LinkedIn).
What the panel made clear is that adaptation is now on the election-year agenda, but the gap between agreeing there is a problem and agreeing on lasting solutions is still wide. National is offering practical regulatory steps. Labour is promising more detail. The other parties have their own plans to fill in. Voters and practitioners alike are left waiting to see which commitments survive the campaign intact.
