GHD | Oceana Gold (New Zealand) Ltd | 12552081 | Waihi North 26 . 2.8 Climate Change The NIWA Our Future Climate New Zealand online mapping tool (NIWA, 2022) estimates changes in a number of climate variables as a result of increasing greenhouse gases in the earth’s atmosphere. The estimated change in annual mean rainfall was considered using the six-model-average result, which uses the six global climate models (GCMs) used in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Fifth Assessment Report (AR5). The results indicate that between 1995 and 2090 annual mean rainfall is estimated to reduce between 0 – 5 % within the groundwater and surface water recharge areas of the WNP. This result remained consistent across all four representative concentration pathways (RCPs) for greenhouse gas included within the NIWA tool (2022) (RCP2.6, RCP4.5, RCP6.0 and RCP8.5). This range is considered to be within the existing natural climatic fluctuations already experienced within the WNP recharge area and is not expected to meaningfully impact the outcomes of this assessment.
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