Disaster Resilience in New Zealand: What we can learn from Australia.
As climate risks and disasters intensify and our infrastructure ages, ensuring the disaster resilience of critical infrastructure comes at a cost, but who should bear it?
At Infrastructure New Zealand’s Infrastructure Resilience Conference, James Russell, Sector Director – Finance and Insurance, spoke alongside colleagues Chris Perks, Sector Director – Transport and Delivery Partners, and Sean O’Meara (BDO). The panel discussed how Australia has approached the funding, financing, and governance of infrastructure resilience, drawing lessons for New Zealand.
Continuity planning empowers businesses to adapt, recover, and thrive
Businesses often struggle to recover from extreme weather events and natural hazards because they are not ready.
It has been estimated that 40% of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) do not reopen after a disaster, and many of those that do fail within a year. Businesses need to rethink their operating models before disruptions happen. Yet building disaster resilience does not always have to require a resource-intensive process or lead to something new. It does not mean changing what a business does, but how it does it. This is where business continuity planning comes in.
New study shows rapid cloud loss contributing to record-breaking temperatures
Earth’s cloud cover is rapidly shrinking and contributing to record-breaking temperatures, according to new research involving the Monash-led Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for 21st Century Weather.
The research, led by the United States’ National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and published in Geophysical Research Letters, analysed satellite observations to find that between 1.5 and 3 per cent of the world’s storm cloud zones have been contracting each decade in the past 24 years.
Most finance ministries are concerned about the physical impacts of climate change, and the implications of the transition away from fossil fuels, according to the results of a major survey published today (9 June 2025) by the Coalition of Finance Ministers for Climate Action.
However, finance ministries are finding it difficult to incorporate climate change into their economic analyses and face many challenges in taking it into account in their decision-making.
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