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Tim Groser.
The French ambassador to New Zealand, Florence Jeanblanc-Risler, opened the first session of the Auckland climate change conference stating, "the world is on track for a robust agreement at COP21 in Paris".
The Paris talks are the first round of global talks on climate change since an unsuccessful round in Copenhagen in 2009.
NZ Minister for Climate Change Tim Groser agreed, stating, "the outlook for Paris negotiations is optimistic and momentum is moving in the right direction."
Groser said he will concentrate on advocating New Zealand's position which is to avoid a "heavy top down, compliance-centric agreement" which will discourage participation. "All along the real issue here has been to start to encourage a far better collective process of emissions mitigation."
The US Ambassador Mark Gilbert said securing a top quality climate change accord is a top priority for the Obama administration. They were working with other large emitters ahead of Paris with President Obama and President of China Xi Jinping making an historic joint announcement last November of intended targets with China agreeing for the first time to limit its CO2 emissions. Recently the two Presidents released a joint statement on climate change and agreed to work together for a successful agreement in Paris.
He also mentioned the Trans Pacific Partnership, saying it will open up free and fair trade, and that it includes the strongest commitments on protecting the environment of any trade agreement in history.
Dr Adrian Macey, senior associate at the Institute for Governance and Policy Studies at Victoria University, commented on the significant differences between the lead-up to these negotiations and the lead-up to the unsuccessful Copenhagen meeting in 2009. "At this [stage] in the lead-up to Copenhagen, there were 300 pages of text with 3000 square brackets. This time, we have approximately 20 pages of text with maybe 300 square brackets".
He said to get a global response it may be necessary to prioritise engagement over legal commitment.
In February I enjoyed the opportunity to present a keynote address at Climate Action Week Marlborough on the reasons why climate change is the most significant long-term challenge facing our industry and what the short-term opportunities are for members to take action to reduce their carbon emissions.
There has been a bit of discussion in the media lately about the Paris climate agreement and whether New Zealand should withdraw from it.
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