Source:  From an article in Nature entitled: Time Running Out for Climate Talks, Nature, Vol. 461, 1034-1035 (2009) available at  http://www.nature.com/news/2009/091021/full/4611034a.html 18 November, 2009)

Following from the fourth assessment by the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC, 2007),  the Ministry for the Environment has published a Guidance Manual for Local Government (http://www.mfe.govt.nz/publications/climate/coastal-hazards-climate-change-guidance-manual/coastal-hazards-climate-change-guidance-manual.pdf) which sets out and explains the implications for New Zealand of IPCC projections for climate change and provides guidelines on how district and regional councils can and anticipate and adapt to the expected consequences of global warming.  It suggests:

For planning and decision timeframes out to the 2090s (2090-2099), a base value sea-level rise of 0.5m relative to the 1980-1999 average, and an assessment of the potential consequences from a range of possible higher sea-level rises . . . .of a mean sea-level rise of at least 0.8 m relative to the 1980-1999 average.  Is this enough?

The outlook is grim. Rising sea levels, increasing acidification of the oceans, the loss of glaciers that will change water flows in some of the world’s largest rivers, more frequent and more prolonged droughts in drier areas, these are just some of the impending impacts of global warming spelled out in the latest climate change scientific research report released by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).