New Zealand records warmest June in over a century

Sydney, Australia, Jul 6 (EFE).- New Zealand recorded its warmest June since 1909, with daily temperatures averaging two degrees Celsius above average despite a polar snap late last month and the fact that it is the middle of the southern winter, a phenomenon that the country’s scientists attribute to climate change.

The average temperature in June was 10.6 degrees Celsius, two degrees above the average for this month between 1981 and 2010, making it the warmest June in New Zealand since record-keeping began in 1909, according to the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (NIWA).

“We always have weather extremes, be it extreme dryness, extreme wetness, extreme warmth, but with climate change it makes those events more likely and also more extreme,” NIWA meteorologist Chris Brandolino told public broadcaster Radio New Zealand on Tuesday.

“What’s alarming is that over the past 10 years, that’s happened six times,” he added, commenting on the government agency’s report that was published the previous day.

New Zealand, the 21st biggest per capita contributor to climate change in the world, has committed to reaching carbon neutrality by 2050 to counter the effects of greenhouse gases on the planet and accelerate the transition to clean energy.

This year, the government of Labour Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, which has an absolute majority in parliament, introduced a law that would require the country’s financial sector to report the impact of climate change on their businesses, the world’s first such legislation.

The government of New Zealand, a country where 40 percent of polluting emissions come from agriculture and waste, declared a climate emergency in December 2020. EFE

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