New Zealand Hosts International Climate Change Meeting

Tim Groser, Minister Responsible for International Climate Change Negotiations, announced today that New Zealand will host a meeting of international climate change negotiators in Auckland next week. The meeting aims to accelerate progress before the next major meeting to be held in Durban, South Africa in December.

“The Auckland meeting will focus on the crucial issue of transparency around emissions reductions. We need to agree on how to measure, report and verify individual countries’ actions so we can make sure that the global effort is on track”, said Mr Groser.

More than 60 senior negotiators from about 35 countries will attend the 25 - 26 July meeting, which New Zealand will co-chair with Mexico and South Africa (the current and incoming Chairs of the United Nations negotiating process). Mr Groser, who facilitated agreement on this issue in Cancun last December, will lead discussions around reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

“In Cancun last December, the world agreed that we need to keep increases in global warming to less than two degrees Celsius. This meeting aims to help determine how we monitor our individual and collective progress.

“Achieving transparency about emissions is an important step towards achieving the goal that we set in Cancun”, Mr Groser said.