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Climate Change & Nature Aotearoa New Zealand

Protect.  Restore.  Adapt.

Climate Change & Nature Aotearoa New Zealand

Protect. Restore. Adapt.

This website is an AI Free Zone: Any typos, broken links, or errors  are due to a real human being.
2024 was the first year to exceed 1.5°C above the pre-Industrial levels, with every month but one since July 2023 surpassing this threshold (

As a result, ~3.3 billion people—40% of the Earth’s population—experienced their warmest year ever. 

While the average temperature for Aotearoa in 2024 was only the 10th warmest year on record (Figs. 1, 2 & 3) Europe averaged 3.07°C and the Arctic 2.94°C above pre-Industrial levels.

Fig. 1: Annual average temperatures 2024. Berkeley Earth's estimate of the global mean temperature in 2024 stands at 1.62 ± 0.06°C above the average during the period 1850 to 1900. This is our second year above 1.5°C and the first above 1.6°C. Aotearoa was relatively cooler than most of the planet and experienced its 10th hottest year (Fig. 2).
Fig. 1: Annual average temperatures 2024. Berkeley Earth’s estimate of the global mean temperature in 2024 stands at 1.62 ± 0.06°C above the average during the period 1850 to 1900. This is our second year above 1.5°C and the first above 1.6°C. Aotearoa was relatively cooler than most of the planet and experienced its 10th hottest year (Fig. 2).

In 2024, the New Zealand Government gave itself the power to exempt parts of the country from any or all of the Resource Management Act requirements. It also scrapped positive actions to reduce emissions, ignoring both the MfE ‘Our atmosphere and climate’ report and the Climate Change Commission’s 2023 report. It plans to open up conservation lands to mining and the ocean to drilling for oil and gas. 

The government of New Zealand has been labelled a “disgrace” after it released a new climate plan which barely requires it to reduce emissions between 2030 and 2035. – Climate Change News 2025

In July 2025, The Ministry for the Environment released: A proposed approach for New Zealand’s adaptation framework:

The government won’t be able to keep bailing out flooded homeowners.   – PM Christopher Luxon: Radio NZ, 09 July 2025

World Meteorological Organisation Annual to Decadal Climate Update (2025-2029) 

Key messages

  • 80% chance that at least one of the next five years will exceed 2024 as the warmest on record
  • 86% chance that at least one of next five years will be more than 1.5°C above the 1850-1900 average
  • 70% chance that 5-year average warming for 2025-2029 will be more than 1.5 °C
  • Long-term warming (averaged over decades) remains below 1.5°C
  • Arctic warming predicted to continue to outstrip global average
  • Precipitation patterns have big regional variations
Fig. 2: Surface temperatures in the Southern Hemisphere were little more than 1°C higher compared to the period 1961-1980, hence why we're experiencing less extreme weather. However, extreme temperatures in the Arctic ultimately impacts the rest of the planet. 
Fig. 2: Surface temperatures in the Southern Hemisphere were little more than 1°C higher compared to the period 1961-1980, hence why we’re experiencing less extreme weather. However, extreme temperatures in the Arctic ultimately impacts the rest of the planet. 
Fig. 3: Temperature changes in Aotearoa 1853 - 2024 
Fig. 3: Temperature changes in Aotearoa 1853 – 2024 

Forty countries including Aotearoa have declared a climate emergency. To help us understand and respond to the emergency this website is in 3 sections:

Climate wiki Aoteaora New Zealand

Climate wiki

Climate wiki

The story of climate change:

Nature-based solutions

Nature-based solutions

Native ecosystems, te taiao, are essential in helping us mitigate and adapt to climate change:

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Our places

Our places

The time is now, Ināia tonu nei, to lead the change we want to see and to remain steadfast to the values that underpin our nationhood—values like whanaungatanga kaitiakitanga and manaakitanga. – Climate Change Commission

What we’re doing to restore our native ecosystems, te manu o te taiao, and tackle climate change. Every project, big and small, includes resources to help you become climate resilient:

Explainers

With a focus on Canterbury, this site includes resources relevant to all of Aotearoa.

Instructions for interactive graph (Credit: The 2°Institute.)

  • Mouse over anywhere on the graph to see the changes over the last thousand years.
  • To see time periods of your choice, hold your mouse button down on one section then drag the mouse across a few years, then release it.
  • To see how this compares to the past 800,000 years, click on the ‘time’ icon on the top left.
  • To return the graphs to their original position, double-click the time icon.
  • The annual ups and downs in the graph are because plants accumulate carbon in the spring and summer and release some back to the air in autumn and winter. As the northern hemisphere has more land and more plants, carbon dioxide levels go up in winter because plants become less productive. Annual measurements of carbon dioxide are an average of these ups and downs.
Instructions for interactive graphs (Credit: The 2°Institute.)

  • Mouse over anywhere on the graphs to see the changes over the last thousand years.
  • To see time periods of your choice, hold your mouse button down on one section then drag the mouse across a few years, then release it.
  • To see how this compares to the past 800,000 years, click on the ‘time’ icon on the top left.
  • To return the graphs to their original position, double-click the time icon.
  • The annual ups and downs in the graph are because plants accumulate carbon in the spring and summer and release some back to the air in autumn and winter. As the northern hemisphere has more land and more plants, carbon dioxide levels go up in winter because plants become less productive. Annual measurements of carbon dioxide are an average of these ups and downs.