Terry Dunleavy is a director of the New Zealand Climate Science Coalition and the International Climate Science Coalition (ICSC), an "International Association of scientists, economists and energy and policy experts" whose goal is to provide an alternative forum to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

Dunleavy was a speaker at the International Conference on Climate Change (2009) organized by the Heartland Institute think tank. [3]

In 2008, Dunleavy supported a bill to stall New Zealand's climate change emissions trading scheme (ETS), calling for "a royal commission to undertake a detailed and independent review of the science of climate change." He expressed concern at "the horrific costs on New Zealanders implicit in the ETS bill, as well as the restrictions on our lifestyle and the international competitiveness of industries that we rely on for our economic survival."