International impacts
New Zealand is strongly dependent upon international connections. The way other countries respond to climate change will influence New Zealand’s international trade relationships, and potentially migration patterns.
Key findings
Four key risks of relevance to New Zealand and its international connections are:
- All aspects of food security are potentially affected by climate change, including food access, utilization, and price stability.
- Climate change over the 21st century is projected to increase displacement of people.
- Climate change can indirectly increase risks of violent conflicts in the form of civil war and intergroup violence by amplifying well-documented drivers of these conflicts such as poverty and economic shocks.
- The impacts of climate change on the critical infrastructure and territorial integrity of many states are expected to influence national security policies.
While New Zealand agriculture could benefit from increasing global commodity prices in the long term, there are many negatives.
We gain significant revenue from long-haul tourism which could be reduced if the acceptability of long‑haul travel, and costs of fossil fuels, are affected by climate change.