Thursday 26 November 2026 · 7.00 to 8.30 pm NZDT · Online, Google Meet
Home insurance in Aotearoa is getting more expensive, and in some places harder to get. As floods, storms, earthquakes and other natural hazards put more homes at risk, and no insurance usually means no mortgage, society and its citizens are directly in the firing line.
Professor Jonathan Boston argues we cannot afford to leave this to risk-rated premiums and market forces. He makes the case for the Natural Hazards Commission to cover climate-related perils as part of a much broader adaptation strategy: avoiding new risks, funding risk reduction including planned relocation, and keeping cover affordable for longer. Insurance reform on its own, he stresses, will not be enough.
This webinar takes his case as its starting point and asks:
How long can a well-designed framework hold as warming rises towards 3°C?
What has to sit around it, from cutting emissions to reducing our vulnerability?
What if the growing economy that insurance and adaptation assume does not eventuate?
SPEAKERS
Jonathan Boston Emeritus Professor of Public Policy, Te Herenga Waka Victoria University of Wellington; author of Insuring the Future: Reimagining Home Insurance in Aotearoa.
Charles Hett New Zealand actuary linked with the Planetary Solvency work of the UK Institute and Faculty of Actuaries.
Nathan Surendran Chair, Wise Response Society, hosting.
Recommended pre-reading: Jonathan’s Helen Clark Foundation webinar; the IFoA Planetary Solvency report.
JOIN ONLINE
Or dial +64 4 889 5059, PIN 504 456 280# · wiseresponse.org.nz
This webinar is organized by The Wise Response Society, and co-sponsored by Our Climate Declaration, Degrowth Aotearoa New Zealand, and Engineers for Social Responsibility.