Science Media Centre

New Zealand may initially get off relatively lightly as the world increasingly experiences the consequences of climate change, but will still face moral obligations to harder-hit vulnerable nations, warn scientists.    A UN report released on Friday in Uganda found that increasing human emissions had “likely” – defined as a 66-100 percent probability – caused more [...]

In the early hours of Saturday morning the UN’s climate change body will release a report that has been described in leaked versions as saying extreme weather events such as downpours and storm surges may make parts of the planet “marginal” for inhabitants. Average global temperatures last year were tied with 2005 for the warmest [...]

As the effects of climate change become more apparent and severe, what steps will we be forced to take to slow global warming? Syndicated columnist Gwynne Dyer looks to the future in an opinion piece published in the Gisborne Herald. An excerpt (read in full here): Moving into risky territory “We are getting into very [...]

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has released a Special Report on Renewable Energy Sources. Dominion Post reporter Kiran Chug covered the story and spoke to Massey University Professor Ralph Sims, an expert who contributed to the report. (The report was also covered in the New Zealand Herald, and a full IPCC press release [...]

Governments from all over the world have struck a deal at COP16, the sixteenth UN conference on climate change, held over the last couple of weeks in Cancun, Mexico. The deal has a number of parts, including the creation of a Green Climate Fund to assist the transfer of green technologies, systems for reporting and [...]

Stern talk on climate change British economist Nicholas Stern will bring his “get serious” message on climate change to New Zealand next week, when he undertakes a lecture series hosted by the University of Auckland. Lord Stern is best known for the 2006 Stern Review, a 700 page document commissioned by the UK Government that [...]

Overnight in New York, an independent report was released which recommended a major overhaul of procedures and management of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. The report, undertaken by a 12 person team from the InterAcademy Council which represents the world’s major science academies, outlines some sweeping changes, such as the installation of an executive [...]

Wrangling over water issues Polluted rivers, dirty dairying, greening the MacKenzie Country, dams for hydro-power and water allocation — these are just some of the big water issues that have been in the headlines in recent months. Although freshwater is relatively abundant in New Zealand, uneven distribution of water resources and increasingly intensive use have [...]

A major review of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s fourth assessment report by the Netherlands Environment Agency wrapped up this week, finding no significant errors in the report’s main conclusions on regional impacts of climate change. It is the latest in a series of reviews that have largely validated mainstream climate science conclusions, while [...]

Q+A’s Paul Holmes interviews the Prime Minister’s Chief Science Advisor Professor Sir Peter Gluckman about the Global Research Alliance, an international initiative set up by New Zealand to investigate how best to reduce agricultural emissions. The GRA’s first meeting took place recently in Wellington, and Gluckman commented on the GRA and its purpose, as well [...]