As climate change causes insurance premiums to rise in New Zealand’s coastal towns and cities, a candidate for mayor in Palmerston North expressed concern about its impact on his inland community.

Teanau Tuiono told NZ Herald that, as coastal cities are hit by rising sea levels, whole communities may start moving to inland cities like Palmerston North. However, Tuiono said that his city is unprepared for that scenario.

Read more: Climate change threatens coastal communities

“They will have problems with insurance and consents on those coastal communities and my feeling is that they will start to move into the inland cities, and we don’t yet have the infrastructure in place to deal with that,” Tuiono told NZ Herald. “There is no climate action plan in the city council so that’s what concerns me the most. You do hear a bit of talk but for me when people talk about these things, you’ve got to look for certain things. You’ve got to look for, first of all, the action plan. Second [you have to look for] targets, and after that, measurements.”

Tuiono said that his priority would be a climate mitigation adaptation assessment.

“That tells us exactly where the gaps are as far as infrastructure,” he told NZ Herald. “That will give us a better picture of how much the thing might cost and so far for me, I think it’s really important not to avoid that difficult conversation.”