Though protected areas have grown considerably over the last 130 years, there has been a recent decline in the growth of new protected areas and problems with ineffective management. At the same time, society increasingly expects protected areas to provide an expanded array of benefits, including climate mitigation, resilience and adaptation. This poses three main questions for policy makers: where new protected areas should be located in order to maximise climate change resilience, how protected areas should be managed to maximise climate change resilience, and what factors and policies are necessary to enable protected areas to maximise climate resilience, adaptation and mitigation. This paper explains how planners can include climate-related issues into the planning and management of protected areas whilst assessing and communicating the economic value of protected areas in addressing climate-related isues.