Leading experts in the construction and property sector have today released three comprehensive climate change scenarios to guide the industry on how they assess and report on what climate change means for their business.
Since January this year around 200 of the country’s largest companies and organisations have been required to start disclosing information about their climate-related risks and opportunities in line with climate standards issued by the External Reporting Board.
With large financial institutions, materials and building companies, as well as property owners among those required to report, Te Kaunihera Hanganga Tautaiao | New Zealand Green Building Council (NZGBC) has brought together leaders and industry experts for this vital work to create climate scenarios for the construction and property sector. –
“The final climate scenarios released today, provide a detailed overview of the political, technological, and behavioural landscape the impact of further increases will have on global temperatures. The scenarios outline three plausible pathways – Orderly, Disorderly and Hot House. Importantly, the scenarios outline the risks and opportunities of climate change such as sea level rise and extreme weather events and the implications for construction and property industries posed by the transition to a net zero carbon economy. “says Peter Mence, CEO, Argosy and Chair of the Leadership Group
“While the physical and transitional risks remain moderate if global climate change is curbed at 1.5 degrees, once you begin to look at the impacts of higher degrees of warming you start to see significant impacts within the construction and property sector. The risk to organisations at 3 degrees of warming are high. For example, assets unable to withstand climate impacts or that are too expensive to insure will likely be left stranded, resulting in a financial impact on those property owners.” Andy Eakin, Chief Financial Officer, Goodman Property and Chair of the Technical Working Group
“We have seen the devastating impact of floods and cyclones in Aotearoa recently. Having these specific climate change scenarios and a detailed outline of the risks and opportunities allows the sector to take a consistent approach when working through their climate-related disclosures. This in turn will help these companies take more focused, and productive action to curb emissions. It is tremendous to have so much of the sector feed into this work, which helps the whole industry to consider risks and take action to prepare for our rapidly changing climate.” Andrew Eagles, CEO, Te Kaunihera Hanganga Tautaiao | New Zealand Green Building Council
The report, completed by Beca, is available here
A huge thank you to all who have fed into the Leadership Group and Technical Working Group since the project kicked off in August 2022.
The members of the leadership group are:
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Dr Alex Thompson - NIWA - General Manager - Research Strategy
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Bryce Davies – IAG Executive Manager for Corporate Relations
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Antonia Watson – ANZ - CEO
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Earl Gasparich – Metlifecare - CEO
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Hamish McBeath - Fletcher Building - Chief Executive of Building Products
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John Dakin – Goodman Property – Executive Director (Vice-Chair)
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Peter Mence – Argosy Property Trust – CEO (Chair)
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Phil Littlewood – Stride Property Group – CEO
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Richard Jefferies – Tainui Group Holdings Limited – CFO
Thank you to Beca for writing the report