Ko Papa Ko Rangi: Up or down?

In the end, how can we overcome the current barriers to investment in and funding for climate adaptation? If we consider that the “costs” of climate change include environmental, human, social, cultural and financial costs, what innovative solutions are, or could be in play to respond equitably and effectively to this crisis? In this panel, we bring together possibilities and provocations that interrogate government policy levers, alternative business strategies, and private sector mobilisation.Māni Dunlop discusses these ideas with our panelists on the day of our symposium - 19 May 2023, at Te Papa Tongarewa.

We know that work is getting underway across Aotearoa to quantify the costs of climate change, including the costs of adaptation or of failure to adapt. But how do we understand “cost”? Does it encompass the fullness of our environmental, human, social, cultural (and financial) worlds that are central to our experiences of and response to this crisis. Can our current economic thinking really lead to effective climate adaptation? If we can’t or don’t consider some costs, how can we ensure these are factored in our adaptation decisions?Māni Dunlop discusses these ideas with our panelists on the day of our symposium - 19 May 2023, at Te Papa Tongarewa.

Everyone, from homeowners to policy makers, from marae committees to corporations, is asking, “How much will climate change cost us, and how much will it cost to adapt?” But are these the best questions? How are the assessment tools and frameworks we currently use to guide investment considering the “costs” of climate change, or the benefits of adaptation?Do we risk embedding an unbalanced future, because we’re struggling to step back and consider the full extent of what’s at stake? This fourth and final podcast, with key thinkers in the space, will examine what we know about “costing climate change”, what we don’t know, and perhaps even what we don’t know we don’t know.Episode 4 | Framing the costs of climate change, with Sacha McMeeking, Anita Wreford, Jodie Kuntzsch

How do we currently price, pay for and transfer “climate risk”? Are these methods reducing danger or delaying what we do about it? Insurance only works when you can afford it; who will be (or is being?) most harmed if we don’t support different ways of protecting ourselves and our communities? This third podcast, with experts from within and outside of the insurance industry, interrogate the role of insurance now, and what it might need to play an effective and equitable role in climate adaptation.Episode 3 | Insurance for adaptation, with Ronji Tanielu, Carolyn Kousky and Belinda Storey

To understand the paradigm within which we consider concepts of value, cost and risk, we need to grapple with our past and reconsider our present. In this second podcast, senior economist Shaun Awatere and Te Tiriti educator Jen Margaret look backwards and forwards, exploring how our economy and economic frameworks have evolved and been impacted by past decision-making, and what this could mean for our future with a changing climate.Episode 2 | Ka mua ka muri, with Shaun Awatere & Jen Margaret

The first podcast in our rolling symposium is a conversation with the Pou Tikanga of the Deep South Challenge Ruia Aperahama, and our Climate Change Knowledge Broker Kate Turner, exploring the symposium’s name.Within mātauranga Māori, the concept of “utu” suggests that if something is taken, permission must first be requested. Once taken, something of equal or greater value must be returned. Further obligations are in this way generated, and a relationship becomes reciprocal. In the pūrākau of Papa and Rangi, for choosing to separate his parents, Tāne repays them over and again, with his heart forever to Papa and his feet always striving for Rangi – an expression of ever growing love. With this image, we see Tāne as upside down. But perhaps it is we who are the wrong way up? Are we capable of making decisions that return to Papa and Rangi value greater than what we have taken?Episode 1 | Ko Papa Ko Rangi: Up or Down? With Ruia Aperahama, Alexandra Keeble and Māni Dunlop.