The objective of this report is to assess the need to adapt houses in New Zealand to climate change. Our assessment is based on medium-low and medium-high climate change scenarios from research by NIWA.
To explore the building sector’s vulnerability to climate change:
- the topology and condition of the national building stocks was reviewed
- regional and district councils were surveyed to collect climate-related damages
- overheating conditions and energy consumption scenarios were simulated
- scenario-based methodology was used to investigate social impacts.
Adaptation options and recommendations are generated for a broad range of building-related climate change impacts. Economic modelling and cost benefit analyses are used to investigate the economic viability of a range of adaptation options. The Climate Change Sustainability Index is revisited as a tool to assess building climate change vulnerability.