A year in climate news
These are some of the most important moments in climate news in the past 12 months. Joel MacManus reports.
It has been one year since Stuff launched Quick! Save The Planet!, a long-term project aimed at making the realities of climate change feel tangible – and unable to be ignored.
There have been some significant moments during the past year. These are some of them.
Special Report on Global Warming warns of dire consequences
Since 2015, 195 countries have signed on to the Paris Agreement, committing to limiting the increase in average global temperature to no more than 2 degrees Celsius, and pursuing efforts to keep it to 1.5C.
There was no certainty that limiting the increase to 1.5C was even possible.
The Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5C was a massive global scientific effort to explore what needed to be done to limit global warming and what impact that would have.
It found that the target is technically possible, but required ‘‘rapid, farreaching and unprecedented changes in all aspects of society’’.
To achieve 1.5C, the world as a whole would need to cut carbon emissions around 45 per cent by 2030, and reach ‘‘net zero’’ by around 2050 – meaning more greenhouse gases are removed from the atmosphere each year than added to it.
While they seem like similar outcomes, the difference between an increase of 1.5C compared to 2C would be vast. If we see a 2C increase, that could lead to 99 per cent of coral reefs dying, thousands of extinctions, and food scarcity impacting tens of millions of people.
The message was simple. A small change won’t do it, we need drastic action.
Government backs down from adding agriculture to the emissions trading scheme
The emissions trading scheme is meant to be the cornerstone of New Zealand’s climate change policy. It’s a simple concept – companies that emit greenhouses gases have to buy carbon credits to cover their emissions.
But the scheme has been criticised as ineffective, partly because carbon credits are too cheap, and partly because many of the largest emitting industries are exempt or receive huge subsidies. The elephant in the room is agriculture: it makes up almost 50 per cent of our national emissions and has been exempt from the scheme since it began.
The Government proposed bringing the industry into the scheme (albeit at a 95 per cent discount), but ultimately backed down under pressure from farmers.
In the end, a middle ground was met: The agriculture sector has five years to develop a farm-level pricing mechanism separate from New Zealand’s Emissions Trading Scheme.
In the meantime, they will continue to pay nothing for their emissions. If the new scheme is not established in time, agriculture will be folded into the ETS by default in 2025
Zero Carbon Bill passes into law almost unanimously
The Zero Carbon Bill is now law, passing earlier this month with support from every party except ACT.
It sets into law two specific targets that are designed to keep New Zealand on track to meet the Paris Agreement.
Animal methane emissions must be 24-47 per cent lower by 2050, and all other greenhouse gas emissions must be at net zero.
There will be carbon ‘‘budgets’’ set every five years, and animal methane must drop 10 per cent by 2030.
Nelson bushfires and West Coast floods provide a real-time warning A scorching summer served as a real-time warning of the potential impact of climate change.
Tinder-dry Nelson was on the back end of months-long drought when a small stone sparked off a piece of metal farming equipment and turned into New Zealand’s largest fire in more than 60 years. Three thousand residents were evacuated from Wakefield and the surrounding areas.
It took one month for the fires to officially be declared ‘‘controlled’’.
Less than two months later, chaotic weather hit again.
Torrential rain struck the West Coast in late March, causing devastating floods. The Waiho bridge was washed away, cutting off the town of Franz Josef. Residents were forced to evacuate as rivers burst their banks, and an old landfill was unearthed, sending tonnes of rubbish hurtling into the ocean.
Strike for climate becomes largest ever protest
There was a clear sense of a tide turning this year as nationwide climate strikes picked up steam and grew into the largest protest in New Zealand history.
The School Strike 4 Climate movement, inspired by Swedish activist Greta Thunberg, held two protests, on March 15 and May 24, each drawing tens of thousands of attendees around the country.
The third strike, on September 2, was tied into the Global Week for Future movement organisers encourages a wider audience to attend.
The total attendance was estimated at 170,000 people, including 80,000 in Auckland. At 3.5 per cent of the country, it was the largest turnout per capita of any major country and the largest single protest in New Zealand history.
Greta Thunberg condemns leaders in UN speech
In probably the most talked about climate change moment of the year, teenage activist Greta Thunberg gave a striking address at the UN climate change summit, admonishing leaders for letting down young people with a lack of action.
Thunberg, who sailed to New York for the event, predicted the summit would not produce any substantive changes towards preventing climate breakdown.
‘‘The eyes of all future generations are upon you, she said. ‘‘And if you choose to fail us I say we will never forgive you. We will not let you get away with this. Right here, right now is where we draw the line.’’
Reports on seas and land predict dangerous future for New Zealand Two further IPCC reports this year contained serious implications for New Zealand.
The first report, Climate Change and Land, warned that food production would be seriously impacted by a future with over 2C of warming, leading to hundreds of thousands starving and millions of climate refugees to countries like New Zealand.
The second, Oceans and Cryosphere in a Changing Climate, warned that rising seas and more aggressive floods and storms would put increasing pressure on the sea walls which protect many New Zealand cities and towns.
COP24 summit locks in details of Paris agreement
Two weeks of tense talks between 23,000 delegates hashed out the rules of the Paris agreement.
They nailed down exactly how governments will measure their emissions-cutting and how they will prove they are doing what they say. That’s important because it levels the playing field and stops certain countries from fudging the numbers.
Some impact of the conference was watered down by four oil-producing nations: the US, Russia, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, who insisted on changing the wording of a resolution from ‘‘welcoming’’ the findings of the IPCC report, to merely ‘‘noting’’ them.