95bFM The physical and psychological health impacts of the climate crisis
13 November 2025
Interview and article by Sara Mckoy
The Victoria University of Wellington’s James Renwick is calling for urgent climate action in Aotearoa as we witness the broad health consequences of climate change.
In October this year, Victoria University Environmental Science Professor James Renwick was among four professors who published a report on the urgent need for a health-centric climate change response in Aotearoa.
The professors highlight the observed impacts of extreme weather events and the increased intensity and frequency of natural disasters globally, stating that current government policies are “inadequate” to address the risks to human health and wellbeing.
Their briefing also discusses how intense storms, heatwaves, floods, and fires — such as the blaze at Tongariro National Park witnessed this week — can result in a variety of health impacts including excess mortality, air and water pollution, forced displacement, and increased vulnerability to diseases.
Renwick told 95bFM’s The Wire that their report aims to highlight not only the impact on physical health, but also psychological health.
“One [health effect] that doesn't get talked about so much is the psychological impacts, just the knowledge that all of this is happening and worry about the future — eco anxiety, flight shame — all of those things…
“It keeps people awake at night, disrupts our sleep, disrupts our thought patterns, [and] makes us more anxious, all of those things have effects on our physical health as well.”
Renwick says that various climate impacts, like sea level rise or intense heat, will make parts of the world uninhabitable.
He explains that climate effects are felt unequally, with Pacific Island nations facing these challenges already, but displacement due to climate change is becoming more frequent around the world.
“Those places where it's just not healthy to be are going to expand and we're going to make, I'm pretty sure, some parts of the hotter parts of the world just too hot, too humid, too tough to live in…
“I suppose that's another health effect; displacement of people through [high temperatures] and through sea level rise…
“And so large numbers of people over time are going to have to find somewhere new to live.”
Renwick says that the government’s amendment bill to reduce Climate Change Commission advice and public consultation requirements within the Climate Change Response Act (CCRA) is a “real backwards step” in New Zealand climate policy.
He says the targets set up under CCRA were “really world-leading efforts” in terms of climate policy that have been slowly eroded by the National-led government.
“Along with other policy changes like cutting out the subsidies for electric vehicles, raising speed limits on roads, building more and more roads, [and] encouraging people to drive cars, basically petrol-powered cars; this is all going to add to our emissions profile.
“It's going to get in the way of the action we need to take.”
As world leaders convene for COP30 this month, Renwick says he is concerned that there’s been “an awful lot of talk” without sufficient action on climate change.
“In the time we've been talking about the problem, we've made it twice as bad as it was before…
“Now, to stop the warming at a level that's manageable is going to take some pretty miraculous interventions.
“Secretary General of the United Nations, Antonio Guterres, said at the opening of the COP meeting in Brazil, that failure to get on top of this problem will never be forgiven — and I think that's right.”
Renwick says that rhetoric around the need for economic growth before serious climate action has been stalling political movement on this issue for decades.
But he says that climate investment is a “smart move, economically”, given that a failure to invest in our future will generate worse and worse outcomes across all sectors.
His final message for New Zealanders is to not give up hope when pushing for climate action, and make as much ‘political noise’ as possible.
“Humans have 100% of the power in this problem…
“We need to break through the silence on this and really get a broad conversation going in this country and really push for action.”
