Trusted  and relevant information about climate risks and adaptation options can promote autonomous adaptation and manage the legal risks of responding to future climate change. Information gaps are a potential market failure and the effective and efficient provision of information is considered a critical role for governments.

A range of mechanisms exist for providing information about climate risks. These arise in different adaptation contexts, but have been widely deployed in spatial planning for flood, bushfire and coastal hazards. Measures may form part of a broader adaptation strategy, such as open days, public meetings, brochures, factsheets or web-based hazard maps; or they may have stronger legal force and apply to specific parcels of land, such as land information memoranda, notations on planning certificates and certificates of title.

This paper reviews the literature on information requirements for autonomous adaptation decision-making and the legal framework for their use in Australia and New Zealand. It outlines the range of instruments currently used in these jurisdictions; their legal status; the context in which they are deployed. We consider the legal and political consequences of recent attempts by local governments to use such instruments, including local backlash, litigation, and legislative reform, and explore the circumstances in which governments owe a duty to provide climate risk information. We conclude that greater consistency in the design, framing, implementation, communication and legal force of information instruments would enhance public acceptance, enabling them to fulfil their potential in facilitating autonomous adaptation.