Source: New Zealand Ministry of Health
Our climate is changing. These changes are affecting what we value most in our lives, including our health and wellbeing.
This first Health National Adaptation Plan (HNAP) is an important step towards placing health considerations at the forefront of the climate response of Aotearoa New Zealand. It sets the strategic direction and provides national-level priority actions for health-focused adaptation to climate change.
The vision for the HNAP is ‘to protect the health and wellbeing of people and communities from the effects of climate change to achieve pae ora – healthy futures for all New Zealanders’. The aim of this deliberately broad scope is to ensure the health system can provide climate-resilient health services, while also addressing the broader direct and indirect effects of climate change on the health of communities, including those effects that sectors outside the health system contribute to.
The Ministry of Health – Manatū Hauora has developed the HNAP as an action arising from New Zealand’s first National Adaptation Plan. The HNAP also reflects the health system’s own mandate to respond to climate change, most recently reiterated in the Government Policy Statement (GPS) on Health 2024 – 2027.
