Kiwifruit can now be grown in Invercargill and Dunedin suffers from drought, a new report from the Ministry for the Environment says.
A major climate change report also makes projections of increasingly longer periods of extreme fire danger for some parts of the country.
The most recent iteration of the government report "Our Atmosphere and Climate" analyses wildfire risk for the first time, and, as reported in yesterday’s Otago Daily Times, Lake Tekapo, Queenstown and Coastal Otago were listed among the places that had more days of very high or extreme fire risk.
Lake Tekapo now has, on average, more than a month’s worth of days a year with very high or extreme fire danger, the report says.
But the report has more to say about the South.
For example, Gore neared the top of the national list for the most days with a heatwave, which includes winter warm spells, between 1972 and 2019.
And the town was also listed among the places that had the most rapid change in winter temperatures, with an average increase of .33degC per decade.
New Zealand has signed the Paris Agreement to lower its greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 to keep climate change in check, and the report says some parts of the economy will sustain losses during a transition to a low-emissions future even if it is well-planned.
Some of the industries that could be most affected by lowering emissions appear to be the South’s biggest.
Greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture, for example, make up nearly half of New Zealand’s gross emissions, the report says.
Climate change could also impact the $10.4billion fishing industry, by affecting fish stocks, including around the South Island.
Kingfish are being caught in greater numbers along the east coast of the South Island, though the species was unknown to early Maori, the reports says.
There is evidence the reproduction of some species, such as snapper and hoki, is affected by sea-surface temperature, and the marine heatwave of 2017-18 was associated with the death of many salmon farmed in the Marlborough Sounds.
Nationally, the report estimated the contribution of climate change to floods and droughts alone cost New Zealanders $840million in insured damages and economic losses.
Heavier rainfalls are having a particular impact in the South.
Dunedin was one of the 30 monitored sites in the report with the largest average increase of total rainfall during extreme rain events, yet was also among sites with the largest increases in the frequency of short-term drought.
Otago Regional Council chairman Andrew Noone said the report was sobering.
Climate change was one of the council’s top priorities, and its "Climate Change Risk Assessment for Otago" was nearly complete.
The council’s report was a wide-ranging assessment of projected changes to the climate and related risks for the region.
It would be used by councils, communities, iwi, experts and others to plan for climate change, he said.
