Counting the cost of climate change

This seminar is an abridged version of the 2018 Treasury Guest Lecture delivered by Dave Frame and David Fleming.

Climate change is already making day-to-day life more precarious and more expensive, both for ordinary New Zealanders and for our local and central governments.

New Zealanders are increasingly interested in climate adaptation strategies. Conversations about the cost of early adaptation versus the risk of delayed action are growing in volume.

Researchers from the Deep South Challenge are working on a huge range of climate adaptation issues. They are addressing urgent questions about the climate resilience of our infrastructure. They are asking who will pay for climate adaptation, and how. And they’re developing important solutions to the problem of decision-making in an uncertain future.