Topics tagged with 'Extreme weather'
NZ marine heatwaves could double in intensity under high-emissions pathway
16 Oct 2025
By Shannon Morris-Williams | New projections show marine heatwaves will grow more intense around the North Island and more frequent around the South Island as the climate warms – raising risks for fisheries, aquaculture, coastal ecosystems and tourism.
Government told to prepare for 2C warming by 2050
16 Oct 2025
The UK should be prepared to cope with weather extremes as a result of at least 2C of global warming by 2050, independent climate advisers have said.
Uninsurable buildings should focus minds on climate adaptation
16 Oct 2025
The bleak future faced by one small town offers a cautionary tale about the threat from global heating.
Landslides and flooding cut off 300 communities in Mexico with dozens dead and missing
16 Oct 2025
When a river that winds through the mountains of central Mexico suddenly turned into a crushing wall of water over this past week, it practically wiped the 400-person village of Chapula off the map.
‘Weird and sad’ – Tuvalu Climate Minister condemns NZ halving methane target
15 Oct 2025
By Liz Kivi | Dr Maina Talia, Tuvalu’s Minister for Home Affairs, Climate Change, and Environment, says he’s surprised at New Zealand’s decision to weaken its target for reducing methane emissions – and is planning to take up the issue with his counterpart Climate Minister Simon Watts this week.
NZ’s biggest ever climate meeting kicks off
14 Oct 2025
By Liz Kivi | The world's largest climate adaptation conference kicked off in Christchurch yesterday, with nearly 2000 attendees expected, making it potentially the biggest international climate meeting Aotearoa New Zealand will ever host.
New tool to map risk, plan climate adaptation
14 Oct 2025
Researchers from the University of Canterbury have unveiled a new platform that aims to help communities, councils and organisations navigate climate change and plan for future events.
How Caribbean states are shifting climate legislation
14 Oct 2025
The Caribbean region is among the most vulnerable to climate change, despite historically contributing less than half of one percent of global greenhouse gas emissions.
Northland builds momentum on climate resilience and adaptation
13 Oct 2025
By Shannon Morris-Williams | Northland Regional Council’s Annual Report cites major gains in climate action – highlighting stronger flood resilience, an expanded Climate Resilient Communities Fund, and a region-wide adaptation strategy.
Farmers face heightened solvency risks as climate changes: research
10 Oct 2025
By Pattrick Smellie | Increasingly volatile weather patterns, higher insurance costs driven by climate change risk and global financial volatility represent risks to New Zealand farmers’ capacity to service debt and remain solvent, according to new research by Christchurch-based research firm Kōmanawa Solutions.
Amnesty International calls for climate visas for Pacific peoples
10 Oct 2025
Amnesty International is calling on the government to offer dedicated humanitarian visas to Pacifica peoples displaced by climate change, and to urgently reform immigration policies to align with a rights-based approach to climate displacement.
Climate change could strain GP access, research warns
10 Oct 2025
Media release - University of Canterbury | New UC research shows the serious effects that climate change could have on New Zealand’s health system, making it even harder for people to see a GP.
Pakistan's catastrophic floods show why we need just and effective climate finance
10 Oct 2025
Images of catastrophe flicker across our screens with alarming regularity: parched lands cracking under relentless heatwaves in the Sahel, coastal communities swallowed by rising tides in the Pacific and, now, devastating torrential floods in Pakistan.
Climate change puts $180 billion of coastal property at risk – report
8 Oct 2025
By Shannon Morris-Williams | New Zealand's sea temperatures are rising faster than the global average, marine heatwaves are intensifying, and more than 200,000 properties now sit in flood-prone areas – putting ecosystems, communities and the marine economy at risk.
New decision-making process for erosion-prone Tairāwhiti
8 Oct 2025
‘Deliberative democracy’ and collaborative decision-making are behind big changes that Gisborne District Council has endorsed to transform Tairāwhiti/Gisborne’s erosion-prone land in the face of worsening climate change.
Most of the world has recently set all-time heat records
8 Oct 2025
We focus a lot on global average temperatures, but this tends to mask the real local impacts that climate change is having. The land – where all of us live – is warming about 40% faster than the global average, and high latitude regions are warming even faster.
Major UN climate conference in Christchurch next week
7 Oct 2025
By Shannon Morris-Williams | A major United Nations climate conference is coming to Christchurch next week, with organisers aiming to spotlight Pacific realities, Indigenous innovation, and the policies needed to scale climate adaptation across policy, finance and on-the-ground practice.
In a new era of climate disaster, a tiny, resilient mountain village in New Mexico is teaching the world how to adapt
7 Oct 2025
Rather than risk the destruction of their village with every flood, Ruidoso’s leaders are plotting for survival.
Emerging biodiversity and carbon markets part of Gisborne plan for land-use change
6 Oct 2025
Gisborne District Council has endorsed a plan to shift up to 100,000 hectares of the region’s most erosion-prone land into permanent vegetation cover and is calling on the Government to make urgent changes to the Emissions Trading Scheme to aid the transition.
Media round-up
3 Oct 2025
In our round-up of climate coverage in local media: Leaving the Paris Agreement won’t fix NZ’s farming frustrations, what Pacific Island leaders told the UN General Assembly about climate, and Hawke's Bay Regional Council faces class action legal challenge over flooding.
Climate credibility gap widening for Aussie firms
1 Oct 2025
By Pattrick Smellie | Australian public companies’ climate change commitments are in retreat, reflecting difficulty in achieving stated targets and increased fossil use, but not because of any pressure to make less effort, according to a study of major companies’ ESG reporting.
Warming oceans prompt major overhaul of how scientists monitor El Niño and La Niña
1 Oct 2025
Global warming is interfering with how Earth Sciences New Zealand monitors one of the world’s biggest climate drivers.
Study warns climate leadership falling short in NZ
1 Oct 2025
Media release - Waipapa Taumata Rau, University of Auckland | Research suggests New Zealand’s climate leadership is falling short, with current adaptation efforts focused on property and cost-cutting rather than protecting communities.
NZ's worst droughts of today could become average conditions this century - research
30 Sep 2025
By Shannon Morris-Williams | Continuing global heating, plus a 10% drop in summer rain, could turn current drought extremes into average conditions, new research shows.
Human-driven climate change intensified super typhoon Ragasa, researchers find
29 Sep 2025
“Super Typhoon Ragasa intensified over waters made hotter by human-caused climate change. These exceptionally warm sea surface temperatures increased the chances that Ragasa would rapidly intensify…”
Heat stress is a major driver of India’s kidney disease epidemic
29 Sep 2025
Cases of chronic kidney disease unrelated to pre-existing conditions are on the rise in India and other tropical nations. As climate change raises temperatures and humidity, the disease is increasingly prevalent among outdoor laborers without access to rest, shade, or hydration.
Emails show forestry lobby fought Gisborne crackdown as slash clean-up drags on
26 Sep 2025
By Shannon Morris-Williams | Sustainable land use advocates are accusing Eastland Wood Council of stonewalling efforts to tighten forestry rules, after correspondence between the group and the local council was released under the Official Information Act.
KiwiRail unveils carbon reduction plan
25 Sep 2025
KiwiRail has released its first carbon reduction plan with a target of reducing emissions by 40% in the next decade and to reach net-zero carbon by 2050.
Govt needs to plan for catastrophes
25 Sep 2025
Media release - Otago University | Two thirds of New Zealanders support the idea of the Government developing specific plans to deal with catastrophic risks, such as a Northern Hemisphere nuclear war or the release of a bioengineered infectious disease, University of Otago research has found.
More Kiwi households turn to solar as energy costs mount
24 Sep 2025
Rising power prices are driving more households to consider switching to solar, with nearly half of New Zealanders considering installing solar panels or already having them installed, according to new research.
Alarm over new West Coast hazard zones
24 Sep 2025
By Lois Williams, Local Democracy Reporter | Council and iwi leaders agonising over the West Coast ‘One Plan’ have tackled what planners describe as its most complicated and emotive chapter -- the one on Natural Hazards.
‘Con,’ ‘scam,’ ‘hoax’: Trump’s UN speech on climate
24 Sep 2025
The president used a large chunk of his hour-long speech to world leaders to condemn climate science and clean energy policies.
Lobby group launches ‘blueprint’ for ocean management reform
18 Sep 2025
The Environmental Defence Society yesterday released its plan to tackle widespread ecological decline in our oceans.
Science cuts will hold back climate research
17 Sep 2025
By Liz Kivi | A crisis in government-backed science funding is worsening, with dire implications for climate research in New Zealand, according to experts from the scientific community.
Europe’s summer of extreme weather caused €43bn of short-term losses, analysis finds
17 Sep 2025
Greatest damage from heat, drought and flooding done in Cyprus, Greece, Malta and Bulgaria.
Rising seas will threaten 1.5 million Australians by 2050 – report
16 Sep 2025
One and a half million Australians living in coastal areas are at risk from rising sea levels by 2050, a landmark climate report has warned.
Study links world’s top oil and gas firms to 200 ‘more intense’ heatwaves
15 Sep 2025
Global warming linked to the world’s biggest oil and gas companies made all “major” 21st century heatwaves more intense and frequent.
'Non-negotiable' – EU carbon pricing to hit Kiwi exporters, expert warns
11 Sep 2025
By Shannon Morris-Williams | High carbon exports will inevitably face a high carbon tax at the EU border, possibly in the next five years, and high methane agricultural products might not be exempt, an international expert told a local audience yesterday.
'Reframe' climate conversations - focus on thriving together, says advisor
11 Sep 2025
By Shannon Morris-Williams | New Zealand must mirror its Covid-19 response if it wants to get buy-in from the public on climate action, according to Ministry for the Environment chief advisor Heather Peacocke.
Climate disaster fund to start paying out in 2025
11 Sep 2025
A loss and damage fund aimed at offering financial assistance to Global South nations hit by climate disasters will start paying out next year say officials at UN climate talks in Baku.
Pakistan evacuates 25,000 people from eastern city as rivers threaten flooding
11 Sep 2025
Rescuers backed by troops evacuated more than 25,000 people from a city in Pakistan’s eastern Punjab province overnight as rising rivers threatened to flood the region.
La Niña set to prolong NZ hydro shortfall
9 Sep 2025
By Shannon Morris-Williams | With La Niña favouring a drier-than-normal spring across much of the South Island, hydro lakes are unlikely to recover without substantial rain and late snowmelt – keeping national storage levels below average.
Pacific Islands leaders meet with climate change, security on agenda
9 Sep 2025
China and the US are barred from the Pacific Islands Forum as leaders gather for the annual summit in the Solomon Islands.
Bleak future for skifields due to climate change - expert
8 Sep 2025
Winter snowfall was well below average for much of the country, with multiple skifields remaining closed due to a lack of snow, offering a glimpse into a "dire" future for snowsports in New Zealand, according to an expert.
Climate change made heat and dryness that fueled Iberian wildfires 40 times more likely
8 Sep 2025
The extremely hot, dry and windy conditions, which fueled one of the Iberian Peninsula’s most destructive wildfire seasons in recorded history, were 40 times more likely due to climate change, according to a study.
Media round-up
5 Sep 2025
In our round-up of climate coverage in local media: The great methane debate; law change scuppers legal challenge to irrigation scheme consent; and what are the energy and climate implications of the $7.5 billion Amazon Web Services data centre deal?
Endeavour Fund research to shape NZ’s future
5 Sep 2025
Media release - New Zealand Government | A project that looks to harness the potential of supercritical geothermal energy is amongst 19 ambitious science programmes the Government is backing, Science, Innovation and Technology Minister Dr Shane Reti and Regional Development Minister Shane Jones announced today.
Forest carbon stores massive blind spot - study
4 Sep 2025
By Shannon Morris-Williams | Aotearoa New Zealand’s planted forests hold significant deep soil organic carbon — with over half of it stored below 30 cm, and much of it over 1,000 years old.
'Atrocious' and 'bizarre': experts slam Act Party's climate policy
3 Sep 2025
By Liz Kivi | The Act Party is promising to challenge New Zealand’s Paris Agreement climate target, while the coalition Government’s other minor partner, NZ First, also says it wants to reevaluate the country’s commitment to the international treaty.
Green spaces are key to combating record heat in marginalised communities
3 Sep 2025
Environmentalists say one solution to beating the heat in sprawling cities is planting more trees, creating green spaces like parks and meadows and covering rooftops with plants.
Fifty years of observations, no reversal of glacier climate damage
31 Mar 2026
Media release: Earth Sciences New Zealand | Fifty years on from the first aerial survey of our Southern Alps glaciers, late snow and variable summer weather delivered a temporary reprieve from rapid ice loss, says Earth Sciences New Zealand.
Climate experts say spring is coming earlier. How will that affect agriculture and ecosystems?
Today 10:45am
An earlier spring affects when migratory birds arrive, leaves emerge, and fruit ripens — among plants and animals that determine ecosystem health.
$30m airline fund risks ‘burning public money’ without lasting benefit – expert
20 Mar 2026
By Shannon Morris-Williams | A $30 million government package to support regional air routes risks delivering poor value for money while increasing emissions, according to transport strategist Tim Adriaansen.
Signs of jet fuel hoarding emerge in Asia on Iran oil shock
26 Mar 2026
Signs are growing that Asian countries are hoarding jet fuel after the Iran war sent oil prices surging, reflecting growing strain on the aviation industry.
New protections for NZ migratory species under UN convention
Thu 2 Apr 2026
By Shannon Morris-Williams | New international protections for migratory species, including several found in New Zealand, are a positive step – but global protections won’t halt the decline of migratory species on their own, experts say.
Air NZ joins Marsden Point SAF project
3 Mar 2026
By Pattrick Smellie | Air New Zealand has quietly added its name to a consortium exploring the viability of green hydrogen production for sustainable aviation fuel at Channel Infrastructure’s Marsden Point energy hub.
Supply-side pressures and political uncertainty ahead for carbon market
Today 10:45am
By Kristen Green | ANALYSIS: With failed auctions, a surge of new forestry registrations, and an election a few months away, the NZ ETS in 2026 will be subject to a mix of supply-side pressures and political uncertainty.
Fast-track approved project could deliver NZ’s largest wind farm
Today 10:45am
Media release: New Zealand Government |Fast-track approval has been granted for New Zealand’s largest wind farm project.
Economic contraction will impact carbon market
Wed 1 Apr 2026
By Liz Kivi | While higher fossil fuel prices strengthen the long-run economics of decarbonisation, the current fuel crisis won’t inspire near-term confidence in the carbon market, according to Lizzie Chambers of Carbon Match.
Asia ramps up use of dirty fuels to cover energy shortfall triggered by Iran war
Thu 2 Apr 2026
South Korea will delay the shutdown of coal-fired plants, while the Philippines also plans to boost the output of its coal-burning plants
Death toll in Afghanistan flooding increases to 28, authorities say
Wed 1 Apr 2026
Afghan authorities said Monday that the death toll from severe weather that has struck swathes of the country over the past four days has increased to 28, with 49 people injured. Dozens of people have died from extreme weather in the country so far this year.
Sustainable retail-office project breaks ground under new Green Star framework
19 Feb 2026
Construction is set to begin on a new retail-office development in central Auckland, which is targeting a 40% reduction in embodied carbon and 25% lower energy.
Opposition attacks Govt over fossil fuel phaseout backdown
2 Feb 2026
By Liz Kivi | Revelations that Resources Minister Shane Jones ruled out New Zealand signing up to a 'road map' away from fossil fuels at last year’s global climate summit show the National Party’s minor coalition partners’ undue influence over the Government, according to Labour leader Chris Hipkins.
Carbon price: Ups and downs amid geopolitical uncertainty
26 Mar 2026
By Liz Kivi | After ups and downs in recent weeks, the carbon market again broke above the $40 mark this week, with questions around how the Middle East conflict will play out weighing on market confidence.
A matter of strategy
Today 10:45am
COMMENT: Even on the brink of a global commodities crisis, the possibilities for climate action aren't hopelessly foreclosed. Strategy can turn our fortunes around, writes David Hall.
Environmental groups call for ETS reform
20 Feb 2026
Several environmental organisations are calling on political parties to make climate and biodiversity central to the 2026 election campaign, with reforming the Emissions Trading Scheme seen as a key priority.
Transport dominates NZ’s rising consumer emissions
10 Dec 2025
By Shannon Morris-Williams | Transport pollution was the biggest contributor to an increase in New Zealand’s consumption-based emissions in 2023, with emissions from household travel up 12%, and consumption-based emissions totalling 58.3 million tonnes – up 1.6% from the previous year.
Wellington planting nears one million trees
30 Mar 2026
By Shannon Morris-Williams | Greater Wellington’s parks restoration programme will hit one million native trees this year, with the first dams to rewet peat wetlands in Queen Elizabeth Park now completed after a years-long effort to bring these ecosystems – and their carbon sequestering superpowers – back to life.
Labour mulls GIDI 2.0 as factory closures mount
Wed 1 Apr 2026
By Pattrick Smellie | Factory closures across the country could have been prevented if the last Labour-led government’s GIDI fund to assist companies with the cost of electrification hadn't been scrapped, Labour energy spokesperson, Megan Woods, says.
RMA to speed up fossil fuel consents
18 Aug 2025
By Liz Kivi | An energy lobby group has welcomed a last-minute amendment to the RMA that puts fossil fuels on the same footing as renewables, however a sustainable energy expert says the move “beggars belief.”
FMA to ease conditions for green bond issues
31 Mar 2026
By Pattrick Smellie | Green, social and sustainability-linked bonds will face lower disclosure requirements and regulatory costs under a class exemption newly granted by the Financial Markets Authority.
Fonterra admits ‘100% grass-fed’ claim breached law in greenwashing row
Thu 2 Apr 2026
By Shannon Morris-Williams | Fonterra has admitted its “100% New Zealand grass-fed” claims on Anchor butter were misleading and breached the law, settling a case brought by Greenpeace Aotearoa over packaging used between December 2023 and April 2025.
Govt missing opportunity to slash electricity prices, says expert
11 Feb 2026
By Liz Kivi | The Government’s fixation on eliminating the "dry-year risk margin" as a lever to reduce costs misses a much bigger opportunity to lower electricity prices, according to Christina Hood, head of Compass Climate.
NZ prepares to join ‘gold rush’ for white hydrogen
25 Mar 2026
By Pattrick Smellie | New Zealand may be close to commercialising the capture and use of naturally occurring ‘white’ hydrogen, with investment plans for developments in the Wairarapa region picking up pace in response to spiralling oil prices.
Media round-up
20 Mar 2026
In our round-up of climate coverage in local media: Crown lawyers agree High Court could quash emissions plan if found unlawful; NZ is locked in 'disaster inertia'; and climate change is notably absent from new development laws.
Climate law change spanner in the works for Waitangi Tribunal Inquiry
19 Dec 2025
By Liz Kivi | The Government’s controversial changes to New Zealand’s legal framework for climate policy have thrown a spanner in the works for a long-running Waitangi Tribunal Inquiry into climate change.
Lawyers complain to ombudsman over Govt failure to release LNG modelling
Wed 1 Apr 2026
By Liz Kivi | Lawyers for Climate Action has made a formal complaint to the Ombudsman over the Government’s failure to release information about its controversial decision to build a LNG import terminal.
Cleantech expo coming to Auckland
26 Mar 2026
New Zealand’s first national cleantech expo is set to bring together 30 innovators, in what organisers say is the country’s fastest growing area in the tech sector.
NZ First targets regional share of mining royalties
30 Mar 2026
By Shannon Morris-Williams | New Zealand First has proposed returning 50% of mining royalties to regional communities, saying that too much of the value from resource extraction is currently flowing to Wellington.
Tuvalu prioritises climate change in agreement with NZ
27 Mar 2026
By Liz Kivi | New Zealand has pledged an additional $20 million to climate resilience work in Tuvalu, more than doubling Aotearoa's aid to the tiny island nation in the current financial year.
NZ's latest climate target 'weak' – Climate Action Tracker
24 Jun 2025
By Shannon Morris-Williams | New Zealand's new international climate target to 2035 is weak, and could even allow for higher emissions than the 2030 target, according to a global scientific project that tracks government climate action.
Worst in a generation: Environmentalists slam fisheries reform bill
25 Mar 2026
Media release: Greenpeace | The Fisheries Amendment Bill, which will likely have its first reading in parliament this week, is being labelled the worst fisheries policy in a generation by environmental groups who are calling for it to be rejected to protect ocean health.
Kiwis overly optimistic about state of environment
27 Feb 2026
By Shannon Morris-Williams | New research suggests many New Zealanders believe the environment is in better shape than it really is, with public perceptions often out of step with scientific evidence.
‘They pushed so many lies about recycling’: the fight to stop big oil pumping billions more into plastics
24 Feb 2026
Plastic production has doubled over the last 20 years – and will likely double again. For author Beth Gardiner, metal water bottles and canvas tote bags are not the solution. So what is?
Watts’s last stand: Simeon Brown takes energy portfolio
Thu 2 Apr 2026
By Pattrick Smellie | Energy Minister Simon Watts has lost the portfolio to Cabinet fixer Simeon Brown in a reshuffle announced by Prime Minister Christopher Luxon this morning.
Activists occupy controversial gold drilling site
25 Mar 2026
By Max Frethey, Local Democracy Reporter | Opposition in Golden Bay to a controversial gold mine at Sams Creek has flared up over the weekend after several activists briefly occupied a drilling site.
China has a new competitor? Kazakhstan reveals huge rare Earth deposit that could power the next tech boom
25 Feb 2026
China’s grip on rare earths might finally see some competition, and the world is already taking notice.
Media round-up
Thu 2 Apr 2026
In our round-up of climate coverage in local media: The widening political gap is deepening cracks in NZ's climate consensus, Christchurch recorded more than 30,000 extra cycling trips over two weeks, and is the energy crisis a renewable inflection point?
Sci-tech prioritisation report is a joke that could cost NZ dearly, says NZ Association of Scientists
Thu 2 Apr 2026
Media release: New Zealand Association of Scientists | The Prioritisation Report released yesterday by the Prime Minister’s Science Innovation and Technology Council makes a poor case for further cuts and changes to our research system.
Carbon trading schemes cut more emissions than carbon taxes, according to global study
20 Mar 2026
By Shannon Morris-Williams | Carbon trading schemes are more effective than carbon taxes at reducing emissions, cutting fossil fuel use, and accelerating the shift to renewable energy, a global study has found.
AI’s arrival complicates Big Tech climate goals, and some worry it’s locking in more fossil fuels
Thu 2 Apr 2026
Six years ago, Google was confident that by 2030 it would power all operations with electricity generated from clean sources, including wind and solar power, and remove as much pollution as it produced. Today it calls those goals a “moonshot.” Microsoft says it’s still aiming to remove more carbon than it creates by 2030 but now describes the effort as “a marathon, not a sprint.”
Pacific climate response in question as NZ finance remains unclear
19 Dec 2025
By Shannon Morris-Williams | With New Zealand's $1.3 billion international climate finance commitment set to end with no clarity on what follows, the Auditor-General says oversight of that funding remains patchy and long-term outcomes are unclear.
Fuel crisis powers surge in EV interest in Asia-Pacific region
Today 10:45am
Motorists across the Asia-Pacific region are switching to electric vehicles at a rapid pace, as rising fuel costs due to the Middle East war force consumers and companies to reconsider their reliance on petrol and diesel vehicles.
Infrastructure plan calls for ‘predictable approach’ to electrifying economy
18 Feb 2026
Aotearoa’s first National Infrastructure Plan, introduced to Parliament yesterday, calls for "a predictable approach to electrifying the economy" as one of ten priorities for the next decade.
Dairy farmers' lack of climate action 'even bleaker' than water inaction – Upton
Wed 1 Apr 2026
By Shannon Morris-Williams | Government projections for cutting agricultural emissions are being undermined by low farmer uptake, with the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment warning the country is relying on “heroic” assumptions to meet its methane targets.
AI tool predicts wildfire danger faster than current systems
26 Mar 2026
Media release | A wildfire forecasting system powered by artificial intelligence could help detect dangerous fire conditions earlier and reduce the cost of wildfire response, according to new research from Te Whare Wānanga o Waitaha | University of Canterbury.
Record wind output helps shield the UK from worst of Iran war fallout
Wed 1 Apr 2026
Record output from wind farms has helped boost total clean power supplies in the United Kingdom to new highs so far in 2026, and allowed power firms to pare use of fossil fuels to multi-year lows.
