Climate change

The Auditor-General has a strong interest in making sure that public organisations approach all their climate change-related activity – including governance, planning, risk management, data collection, and reporting – with integrity. Doing so will help ensure that public organisations are able to provide New Zealanders with transparent, meaningful, and understandable information about the organisation’s responses to, and how it is affected by, climate change. It will also facilitate the public sector’s effective and efficient transition to a lower carbon economy.

The Auditor-General’s expectations for public organisations are:

• that governing bodies and senior management teams monitor climate change risks and closely oversee the climate change activity, data, and reporting of their organisation;
• that emissions information is measured and reported clearly – the information must be credible, comparable, transparent, as well as understandable;
• that emissions targets, actions, achievements, progress, and the terminology used are well considered, accurate, and honest (that is, no deliberate or inadvertent “greenwashing”); and
• that reporting on the expected effects of climate change on a public organisation is based on a robust assessment (including risks and opportunities) of the effects on its activities and assets.

Where appropriate, the Auditor-General expects:

• robust planning for how a public organisation will strengthen the resilience of its communities and infrastructure;
• transparent reporting of spending and achievements from specific climate change funding; and
• appropriate monitoring of a public organisation’s performance in meeting its stated targets.

Although identifying, managing, and reporting on climate targets, outcomes, and progress is new and, at times, difficult, it is arguably one of the most important challenges facing New Zealand’s public sector.

The Auditor-General recognises that meeting this challenge will require collaboration, innovation, and a shared commitment to high-quality climate change reporting. We welcome hearing from other parties who might be working toward similar goals.