Adapting to Climate Change in New Zealand: Stocktake Report from the Climate Change Adaptation Technical Working Group Technical Report
- Author
- Climate Change Adaptation Technical Working Group
- Year
- 2017
- Publisher / Organisation
- Ministry for the Environment
- Month
- December
- Pages
- 116
- ISBN / ISSN
- 978-1-98-852527-3
- Keywords
- climate change
- Summary
- Global climate has already changed as a result of greenhouse gas emissions from human activities and it will continue to do so. While we are uncertain about the exact speed and scale of change, we know that planning for the future means planning for a different climate. In New Zealand we will experience increased frequency and intensity of extreme events such as higher temperatures flooding, droughts and wildfires, increased sea-level rise, and warmer and more acidic oceans. This will threaten our coastal communities, cities, infrastructure, human health, biodiversity, oceans and resource-based economy (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), 2014). These changes may also bring opportunities and we need to plan how we can best position ourselves to take advantage of these. In November 2016 the Minister for Climate Change Issues established the Climate Change Adaptation Technical Working Group and asked us to advise the Government on New Zealand’s choices for how to build resilience to the effects of climate change. This stocktake report summarises the expected impacts of climate change on New Zealand over the medium and long term, takes stock of existing work on adaptation, and identifies gaps in knowledge and work programmes. This report is a stepping-stone and has informed our second report on New Zealand’s options for building resilience to the effects of climate change.