A new report from Ngā Pae o te Māramatanga (NPM) and Manaaki Whenua Landcare Research provides guidance for Te Ao Māori on climate change adaptation and mitigation. He huringa āhuarangi, he huringa ao: a changing climate, a changing world was produced by a multidisciplinary Māori research team working across many research institutions. Using a novel kaupapa Māori risk assessment approach to climate change, the report synthesises the latest climate change research through a Māori lens, and identifies the potential impacts, implications, mitigation and adaptation strategies for whānau, hapū, iwi and Māori business. It follows the recent release of an Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report forewarning that global temperature is expected to reach or exceed 1.5°C of warming over the next 20 years.
He huringa āhuarangi, he huringa ao finds that Māori well-being across all four key domains - environment, Māori enterprise, healthy people and Maori culture - will be moderately impacted by 2050. By 2100, the risks to ecosystems are likely to show severe impact, compromising many aspects of Māori well-being. The authors write: “Climate change not only threatens the tangible components of Māori well-being, but also the spiritual components and, most important, the well-being of future generations.”