26022025 photo DAVID UNWIN / THE POST Restore Passenger Rail protestors appear in Wellington District Court. Defendants from left Te Wehi Heketoro Ratana, 29, Andrew Gerald Sutherland, 64, Michael Reginald Apathy, 44, Thomas Brydone Taptiklis, 44. Photo: The Post/David Unwin
A jury has heard that New Zealand's major cities could be underwater by the end of this century if carbon emissions aren't brought under control.
Four members of the Restore Passenger Rail group are on trial in Wellington District Court for protests against climate change in October 2022.
A Restore Passenger Rail protest banner, hung across SH1, Wellington, October 2022. Photo: Supplied
The prosecution argued the protesters created unreasonable risk for the people around them when hanging banners above Wellington's State Highways.
Two protesters from the Restore Passenger Rail group have abseiled down the Hataitai side of the Mt Victoria Tunnel in Wellington and hung a sign saying 'Restore passenger rail'. Photo: RNZ / Kate Green
Michael Apathy, Thomas Taptiklis, Te Wehi Rātana and Andrew Sutherland have pleaded not guilty to charges of endangering transport.
In defence-led evidence, climate expert and Victoria University professor James Renwick told the jury that if carbon emissions continued on the current trajectory, the consequences would be devastating.
Climate expert and Victoria University professor James Renwick (file photo). Photo: supplied
He said in the worst-case scenario, sea level rise could be three to four metres, which would endanger even four-storey buildings.
"You could probably swim out the window of this room. Most of downtown Wellington will be underwater, downtown Auckland - most of it will be underwater.
"There's an awful lot of real estate and a lot of people who live within a metre or two of the current sea level."
Renwick said New Zealand had signed up to the 2015 Paris Agreement - an international treaty to limit global temperature increases to 1.5C above pre-industrial levels - which required countries to do as much as they possibly could to limit carbon emissions, however, there was no way to enforce it.
Currently, there was no evidence to suggest carbon emissions would flatline, and it was likely they would increase, he said.
If that happened, he said the world was expected to warm by 5C above pre-industrial levels this century, "which would be catastrophic".
Citing the devastation of Cyclone Gabrielle, Renwick said our country, like other parts of the world, was already experiencing the effects of climate change.
He said the transport industry was New Zealand's fastest-growing producer of carbon dioxide, which meant it should be a target for reducing emissions.
"We need to get people out of cars," said Renwick.
"The Climate Change Commission recommends major investment in public transport, buses and light rail in cities, but also a national rail network - beefing that up so that we can get trucks off the road and put freight onto trains instead."
Neither Renwick nor climate scientist professor Kevin Anderson from Manchester University were cross-examined by the prosecution.
The jury will begin deliberations on Wednesday after closing arguments.
