New Zealand Climate Report Links Colonization to Heightened Māori Risks

A national climate assessment released earlier this month states that colonization has increased Māori vulnerability to floods, storms, and erosion in Aotearoa New Zealand. The 2026 National Climate Change Risk Assessment includes a companion report focused on Māori communities.

It argues that climate change is likely to deepen existing inequities shaped by colonization, exclusion from decision-making, and chronic underinvestment.

The assessment identifies seven interconnected risk areas across environmental, cultural, and economic domains. It states that loss of protected endemic species affects food gathering places, the Māori lunar calendar, traditional customs, and intergenerational knowledge systems.

Some species could face near-irreversible decline in parts of the country under high-emissions scenarios by 2090, according to the report.

The assessment points to Māori-led adaptation as uniquely effective and calls for policy grounded in Māori customs and knowledge, Indigenous data sovereignty, and stronger Māori authority in climate decision-making. ” Shaun Awatere, lead author of the companion report, said the assessment accurately acknowledges that many Māori settlements, despite relative impoverishment, are still willing first responders on the frontline of increasingly severe climate events.

The report adds to similar findings in the United States’ Fifth National Climate Assessment in 2023 and Australia’s State of the Environment report in 2025, both of which highlighted impacts of colonial policies on Indigenous peoples.