Voters in the region have long been seen as caring more about their finances than green issues. But living through extreme heat, rain and floods has them focused on living with climate change.
New Zealand can expect more days above 25℃, the threshold for heat stress in livestock, and fewer frost days, which will affect crops like kiwifruit that need winter chilling.
Climate change has increased the risk of huge bushfires in Australia.
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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.
A small increase in average temperature means a much bigger increase in the risk of severe droughts.
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Catherine Iorns, Te Herenga Waka — Victoria University of Wellington
New Zealand is replacing its once groundbreaking environmental legislation with new laws, one of which focuses on climate change adaptation and will include a fund to enable managed retreat.
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Climate change has long been dismissed as a significant stress to New Zealand’s native wildlife, but research shows it exacerbates existing threats such as introduced predators and habitat loss.
Fynbos, the biodiverse shrubland in Cape Town, is thought to have the third highest carbon stored per square metre for any biome in South Africa. It must be protected.
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Andrew Lorrey, National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research; Ben Noll, National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research, and Lauren Vargo, Te Herenga Waka — Victoria University of Wellington
Auckland’s extreme drought and the rapid retreat of glaciers in the Southern Alps both highlight how important long-term observations are for water management policy and planning.
US President Donald Trump during his brief attendance at the UN climate summit.
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The summit was supposed to get global climate action back on track. But despite a few bright spots, the urgent action needed to avoid a climate catastrophe looks a long way off.
Flood damage in Bundaberg, Queensland, in 2013. Most communities are at some risk from extreme events, but repeated disasters raise the question of relocation.
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Climate change has got to the point that communities around the world are having to contemplate moving. It’s never an easy process, but good planning improves the prospects of successful relocation.
The Democratic candidates discussed health care a lot – but not healthy food.
AP Photo/David J. Phillip
The Democratic candidates hoping to replace Trump in 2020 debated a host of critical issues but never brought up the equally important challenge of Americans’ food security.
Cars sit submerged in water from Hurricane Dorian in Freeport, Bahamas.
AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa
The usual way we calculate the economic damage of natural disasters underestimates their true toll – which is key to understanding the costs of climate change.
Finance minister Grant Robertson (left) and climate minister James Shaw address school children during a climate protest, promising that New Zealand will introduce zero carbon legislation this year.
AAP/Boris Jancic
The latest report on the state of New Zealand’s environment delivers a forceful official statement on climate change impacts.
Queensland groper, typical of coral reefs off Queensland at 27°S were found in the Bay of Islands, north of Auckland, at 35°S.
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Jim Salinger, University of Tasmania and James Renwick, Te Herenga Waka — Victoria University of Wellington
Analysis of last summer’s heatwave shows it killed farmed salmon and decimated kelp forests, as well as shifting grape harvests and fish spawning times forward by several weeks.