Groser to visit Europe for Climate Change and Trade talks

Tim Groser, Trade Minister and Minister for Climate Change Issues, departs tomorrow for Europe to attend trade and climate change related meetings.

Mr Groser will travel to Berlin to attend the Petersberg Climate Dialogue. This high-level gathering aims to give political guidance to the United Nations Climate Change negotiations in the lead up to the next major meeting, to be held in Doha, Qatar, in December this year.

“I am looking forward to meeting with my international climate change counterparts to discuss how we move the negotiations forward towards a more effective and fairer international climate regime,” Mr Groser says.

“Countries have made pledges to take action to address climate change after 2012, some under the Kyoto Protocol. We need to consider the actions all countries will take to fulfil those pledges while we negotiate a longer term climate change agreement that all countries are part of.”

While in Berlin, Mr Groser will also be meeting with German government officials and businesses.

“We are beginning to see a cluster of German investments in New Zealand’s agri-business sector. It’s important to keep up momentum here - and to look at other areas, such as clean technologies, where we might also build links.”

Mr Groser will also be visiting Moscow, where he will progress the Free Trade Agreement negotiations currently underway between New Zealand and the Russia-Belarus-Kazakhstan Customs Union.