The Impacts and Management Approaches of Climate Change in New Zealand

Abstract

With the increased anthropogenic activity, there has been a steady increase in atmospheric greenhouse gas (GHG) concentrations, resulting in climatic changes. Observing recent changes of environmental components and potential consequences, global initiatives have been to assess impacts comprehensively and formulate pragmatic responses. Consequently, most of the countries are unified to limit globally average temperature rise to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels. New Zealand, a global hotspot of biodiversity, could be considered an insignificant GHG emitter having limited contribution to global emissions. However, the country observes a large per-capita GHG emission rate than many other developed nations. Research conducted in this thesis shows that New Zealand has already experienced significant temperature rise, rainfall changes, and sea-level rise. For example, significant annual, summer, and winter temperature increases have been observed nationally and, in all cities, examined. Regarding rainfall, out of 10 stations, only New Plymouth has observed a significant decline in annual rainfall, whereas Nelson and Napier have experienced significant increases in summer and winter rainfall, respectively. However, trends at several other stations lie close to the critical threshold of significance. Sensitivity tests show that short- (~50 years) and long- (~100 years) term rainfall trends to be mostly consistent. Lastly, all major ports examined have observed significant sea-level rise. Despite these climatic changes being tolerable at present, such impacts are likely to be adverse in the near future. Beginning with the Climate Change Response Act 2002, as per participation in the Kyoto Protocol, New Zealand has adopted various initiatives to address climate change, with the Emission Trading Scheme a central tool. In this thesis, it has been observed that although this scheme is a unique approach (considers six relevant GHGs) and made key contributions for New Zealand both nationally and globally, scope for potential enhancement is discussed. An online survey conducted as part of this thesis reveals that most stakeholders believe that there is still inadequacy of completeness in climate change assessment and mitigation measures. Such aspects deserve wider-scale consultation and inclusion of relevant knowledge sourced from appropriate stakeholders. Strategic recommendations that could potentially be effective for a climate-resilient New Zealand are discussed.