An election is an opportunity to tell politicians to take action on climate change, Victoria University adjunct professor Ralph Chapman says. Photo: RNZ / Nate McKinnon
Voters may be focused on the cost of living, but climate groups say failing to look at climate policies will raise household bills as well.
Researchers say every aspect of life will be affected by a more turbulent climate, and have urged people to use the election to tell politicians to 'get on with it'.
After an emergency meeting to discuss plunging sea ice around Antarctica, which is linked to heating oceans, more than 40 scientists from a range of disciplines warned urgent emissions cuts were needed.
"I wouldn't want to tell anyone how to vote, but what I would say is that whatever you're interested in, climate change will impact it," NIWA marine physicist Natalie Robinson told journalists after the summit.
"If we don't address climate change in the way we are calling for in our statement, we are going to see those impacts flow through to every area of our lives and the longer we leave it to act, the more impact there will be."
Last month was the hottest September New Zealand has ever recorded.
Last year was Aotearoa's hottest year, and eight of the last 10 years were among the hottest 10 since records began.
Although Labour and National have committed to shrinking emissions, the Climate Change Commission said the country was not on track to stay inside its carbon budgets.
Victoria University adjunct professor Ralph Chapman said New Zealanders have taken a fairly relaxed attitude to climate impacts, but were now seeing the costs of heightened cyclones and other disasters hit farmers, households and the government.
"Climate change has risen up the agenda... but we don't place as much importance on it as we do, say, cost of living. But down the track we're going to kick ourselves and say... why didn't we get onto it," Chapman said.
"It flows through to every part of the economy.
"Given the lags in the system from taking political action to actually reducing emissions, we need to take action now to see the benefits for our children.
"An election is an opportunity to say to politicians, get on with it, take action now."
The Climate Change Commission has calculated it is cheaper to meet carbon budgets now than it is to wait until closer to 2050, then move sharply to get emissions down. Moving sooner would also help companies take advantage of the benefits of moving to cleaner ways of operating, it concluded.
Emily Mabin Sutton from lobby group Vote for Climate said climate change would push up things like grocery prices and insurance bills, as impacts from worsening flooding and drought hit living costs.
But she said many of the solutions to lowering emissions actually lower living costs. Policies like massively improving access to public transport and renewable energy would help reduce household bills, as well as lessen pollution, she said.
Laws such as the Zero Carbon Act, which cap emissions and require New Zealand to meet its targets, make a difference, she said.
The Zero Carbon Act has backing from every party except NZ First and ACT.
If re-elected, Labour planned to supplement carbon cutting efforts here in New Zealand with projects in other, likely developing countries, to help save money on meeting international pledges. Meeting climate pledges was tied to at least two foreign trade deals, with the EU and UK.
National said it was focused on domestic reductions and has baulked at committing to pay for overseas help, when asked about this in interviews. But that meant slashing the equivalent of an extra year's emissions from inside the country before 2030, to meet New Zealand's international promises.
The party has not said how it would do that.