Why is a Plan for the Future Important?

Planning is an investment in future success, it’s not a guarantee of success. A plan can prevent possible problems and unlock all new opportunities. In an uncertain world planning for the future will be more difficult and more important. This type of future planning we have started to call adaptation planning.

What is adaptation planning?

Adaptation planning involves developing strategies to cope with the impacts of climate change. Adaptation is about adjusting our lives and communities to the changes that we could expect to happen. This can include anything from building flood defenses to changing agricultural practices to suit new climate conditions.

Why is it needed?

Climate change is causing more frequent and severe weather events, such as hurricanes, droughts, and heatwaves. In Northland you can read What Is Our Risk? How Climate Change Impacts Us for more information. These risks can have devastating effects on communities, economies, and ecosystems and so based on what is a stake, it’s really important we plan for what might reasonably happen.
Adaptation planning helps us prepare for a range of impacts, reducing the risk of damage and ensuring that we can continue to thrive despite the changing climate. Without adaptation, we risk facing more significant losses and disruptions in the future.

How do we do it?

Adaptation planning requires a shift in mindset from traditional planning. These 10 principles were offered by the New Zealand government to inform the principles of how we do adaptation planning:

1. Be proactive: Anticipate change and take practical steps.
2. Think long-term: Take an intergenerational perspective that spans political, planning and financial cycles.
3. Maximise co-benefits: Choose actions that achieve complementary goals while avoiding bad outcomes.
4. Promote equity: Prioritise helping people and places that are most vulnerable to climate impacts and build capacity.
5. Collaborate: Adapt in partnership with iwi/hapū and all New Zealanders.
6. Adjust as we go: Design actions and decision to be revisited and adjusted as circumstances change.
7. Mainstream adaptation: Embed climate resilience as a core part of all decision-making.
8. Make well-informed decisions: Use the best available evidence (science, data, local knowledge and indigenous knowledge)
9. Work with nature: Policies, planning and regulation should protect, enhance and restore nature and any impacts on nature should be mitigated as much as possible.
10. Adapt locally: Enable communities to prepare for the unique risks and opportunities they face, and tailor to local situation.

How we plan will make all the difference between being prepared for and thriving in a world with a changing climate. It’s about creating a resilient society that can adapt and prosper, no matter what challenges lie ahead.

You can do or read more about Plan for a Thriving Future or read the Te Taitokerau Climate Adaptation Strategy for what Councils are doing to help.