Our environment 2025

• Our environment 2025
• Our environment: Technical annex
• Our environment, our lives: The stories behind the numbers

Secretary for the Environment, James Palmer, says much of the change seen in our air, water, climate, marine environment, and land over time has been caused by people whose lives are in turn affected by those changes.

“A lot of this change is concerning, with Our environment 2025 showing very real risks to people, communities and places as a result of factors like unsafe drinking water, and ongoing flooding risks exacerbated by a changing climate,” Mr Palmer says. 

“But elsewhere the report shows evidence of trends stabilising or reversing due to different choices people have made about how we live, or as a result of specific management interventions. These decisions are starting to improve some of the outcomes for New Zealand.  

“New Zealanders have constantly shaped and changed our environment as we’ve grown food and fibre, built homes, and strived to improve life for our communities. The message here is that the changes we make don’t need to have a negative impact and we can turn around past damage.” 

Mr Palmer says there are steps we can take at an individual, community and national level that can improve the quality of our environment and drive better outcomes for people too. One example highlighted in Our environment 2025 is an improvement in air pollution from the switch to cleaner cars, and better fuel.

“Overall, the findings show the value of environmental data and information for helping New Zealanders make informed decisions, whether that’s about where they want to live, how to plan their business, or whether to invest in long-term resilience from severe weather. 

“This highlights the importance of planning and building resilience to extreme weather events, such as floods and wildfires, to benefit from being better prepared, and to avoid risks that could otherwise threaten people and our livelihoods for generations.” 

Mr Palmer says more change to the environment is inevitable. However, with reliable evidence, we can make informed choices that protect our homes, build a strong and enduring economy, and ensure New Zealand is best prepared for the future.

“Our environment 2025 provides an evidence-based overview to help guide decisions about the things that matter most to us. We encourage all New Zealanders to read the report to understand, not just the environmental challenges we face, but the opportunities as well.” 

Updated indicators

As well as synthesising indicator data in the most recent domain reports, Our environment 2025 reports on the following indicators, which have been updated since their respective domain reports were published:

• Extinction threat to indigenous (marine) species (March 2023) - Stats NZ
• Marine non-indigenous species (March 2024) - Stats NZ
• Marine primary productivity (July 2024) - Stats NZ
• Sea surface temperature (July 2024) - Stats NZ
• River water quality – heavy metals (July 2024) - Stats NZ
• Farm numbers and size (December 2024) - Stats NZ
• Irrigated land (December 2024) - Stats NZ
• Livestock numbers (December 2024) - Stats NZ 

Health and quality of life

•  Agriculture, forest harvesting, urban growth, and wastewater infrastructure failures can pollute our waterways, harming ecosystems and making water unsafe for drinking and recreation.
• At least 49 drinking water illness outbreaks have been reported since 1980. These include the 2016 campylobacteriosis outbreak in Havelock North, which made an estimated 6,000-8,000 people ill, hospitalised 42 people, and led to at least four deaths.
• Air pollution from motor vehicles is reducing due to stronger emission standards, more people choosing to use lower emission vehicles, and improvements to engines and fuel. However, road transport continues to be the main source of nitrogen oxides pollution.
• In 2019, it is estimated that human-made air pollution in the form of PM2.5 and NO2 was a factor in 3,239 premature deaths, 13,237 hospitalisations, and 12,653 cases of childhood asthma. It is estimated that air pollution from motor vehicles was associated with 71 percent of these hospitalisations and 69 percent of premature deaths.
• Events, such as extreme weather, can disrupt access to affordable and nutritious food and cause price changes.
• Urban development and land fragmentation are decreasing the availability of highly productive land for fruit and vegetable growing. 

Our homes and property

• 84 percent of people in New Zealand live in urban areas and many people live on or near the coast.
• Development in our urban areas can displace or degrade ‘natural infrastructure’ that acts as a buffer against extreme weather. However, more innovative, and nature-based infrastructure (eg, re-establishing floodplains and restoring streams and wetland sponges) can conserve and improve ecosystems.  
• Developing near rivers and on floodplains can increase the flood risk to homes and infrastructure during heavy rain.
• About 750,000 people and 500,000 buildings worth more than $145 billion are near rivers and in coastal areas already exposed to extreme flooding.
• Coastal communities are vulnerable to extreme wave and storm events, as well as erosion and flooding caused by sea-level rise.
• In 2019, 2,273 kilometres of roads, 5,572 kilometres of water pipes, and buildings with a replacement value of $26.18 billion were assessed as vulnerable if sea levels rise by 0.6 metres.

Our livelihoods

• Extreme weather and climate change affect the viability of food crops, make forest plantations vulnerable to wildfires, and increase the risk of pests and diseases.
• The cost for our food and fibre sectors to recover from Cyclone Gabrielle is estimated to be between $700 million and $1.1 billion.
• The total cost of pests to New Zealand was estimated at $9.2 billion in 2019/20, including primary sector losses of $4.3 billion.
• Climate change, environmental degradation, biodiversity loss, and shorter snow seasons put our tourism industry at risk.
• Hydroelectricity provided an average of 57 percent of our electricity each year between 2010 and 2021 but is vulnerable to changes in rainfall.

Our connection to place

• In some major urban areas (eg, Auckland and Hamilton), the availability of parks and reserves is not keeping pace with urban growth. Private green space is also declining, and this trend is accelerating.
• Models based on communities of macroinvertebrates (eg, freshwater crayfish) indicate that, between 2016 and 2020, 55 percent of monitored river length had moderate or severe organic pollution or nutrient enrichment. Trends at 56 percent of monitoring sites were worsening.
• In 2021, 78 percent of indigenous terrestrial bird species were threatened with extinction or at risk of becoming threatened.
• A survey of five mahinga kai (food gathering) sites in coastal North Canterbury in 2019–21 detected E. coli on watercress and in cockles at levels that exceeded health guidelines for human consumption.
• 420 archaeological sites on public conservation land are at risk of coastal inundation with rising sea levels, while 191 marae in New Zealand are within one kilometre of the coast