With the world on track to blow the carbon budget for 1.5°C before the end of this decade, we must use offsetting carefully. It can no longer be a substitute for deep emissions cuts.
While carbon dioxide removal from the air is not a replacement for emissions reductions, it can supplement these efforts. Experts are continually researching the best ways to do this.
Olaf Morgenstern, National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research
The current estimate is that Earth would warm by 1.5°C to 4.5°C if emissions were to double on pre-industrial levels. The range has remained stubbornly wide, despite improved climate modelling.
New Zealand can expect more days above 25°C, the threshold for heat stress in livestock, and fewer frost days, which will affect crops like kiwifruit that need winter chilling.
The author’s 9-year-old son will likely face about four times as many extreme events in his lifetime as older adults today. An international report explains the impacts already being felt.
Bruce Glavovic, Te Kunenga ki Pūrehuroa – Massey University
Globally, about a billion people living in coastal cities are at risk of climate hazards. The impacts go well beyond the coast and could affect us all, with disruptions to supply chains and trade.
For the first time, an IPCC climate report has assessed evidence that weather and climate extremes are already affecting mental health — and are likely to worsen.
Water is central to adapting to climate change, but very few of the strategies put in place to respond to water hazards or ensure its availability have been evaluated.
Judy Lawrence, Te Herenga Waka — Victoria University of Wellington; Alistair Woodward, University of Auckland, Waipapa Taumata Rau; Anita Wreford, Lincoln University, New Zealand, and Mark John Costello, University of Auckland, Waipapa Taumata Rau
As the impacts and costs of climate change increase over time, New Zealand’s financial systems could become less stable and the government less able to support those affected.
Mark Howden, Australian National University; Joy Pereira, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (National University of Malaysia), and Roberto Sánchez, Colegio de la Frontera Norte
The IPCC is the global authority on climate change. Their new report paints a worrying picture of climate impacts already affecting billions of people, economies and the environment.