New Zealand boosts budget funding for climate resilience in wake of Cyclone Gabrielle

Finance minister Grant Robertson says initial phase will fund cyclone recovery before improving infrastructure to withstand climate extremes

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After months of extreme weather that tore through New Zealand’s road, power and communications networks, the government has pledged a large, rapid funding boost to adapt infrastructure for the climate crisis, including an expansion of the nationwide network of electric vehicle charging stations.

The NZ$6bn announced in Thursday’s budget for a national resilience plan will initially be spent on clean-up and recovery from record-breaking floods that swamped Auckland in January and Cyclone Gabrielle, which in February devastated parts of the North Island. But finance minister Grant Robertson promised in remarks at parliament on Thursday that attention would then turn to increasing the “resilience” of New Zealand’s infrastructure to cope with increasing climate-related weather disasters.