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New Zealand engages internationally on climate change issues in a number of different ways.
New Zealand actively participates in all major UN climate change negotiations. See International Framework on Climate Change for more detail on these meetings.
New Zealand scientists and officials have also been involved in the Assessment Reports produced by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), including as lead authors for certain working group reports. For more information on the IPCC and its reports, see the IPCC website.
New Zealand founded the Livestock Emission Abatement Research Network (LEARN) [external link] in 2007. LEARN is an international network of more than 400 scientists, industry leaders and government officials from developed and developing countries. It is aimed at improving the understanding of greenhouse gas emissions from livestock agriculture and facilitating greater research and development in this area.
We are a member of the International Carbon Action Partnership (ICAP) [external link]. ICAP was established in 2007 as a forum for sharing ideas and experiences amongst governments that have implemented, or are actively pursing implementation of, carbon markets through mandatory cap and trade systems. Other members include Australia, Norway, 10 EU member states and the European Commission, 10 US states, four Canadian provinces, and the Tokyo Metropolitan Government. Japan and the Ukraine participate as observers.
New Zealand is a member of two plurilateral initiatives on Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS), the Carbon Sequestration Leadership Forum (CSLF) [external link] and the Global Carbon Capture and Storage Institute (GCCSI) [external link]. These complementary initiatives have been established to further the development and commercial deployment of CCS technologies.
New Zealand, along with 16 other countries, is a member of the International Partnership for the Hydrogen Economy (IPHE) [external link]. The IPHE was established in 2003 to accelerate the development of hydrogen and fuel cell technologies.
The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) [external link] has a large programme of work on climate change economics and policy. New Zealand participates actively in this forum.
Climate change comes up in many of the regional forums that New Zealand is a member of, including the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum, the East Asia Summit, and the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting.
New Zealand is involved in various climate change activities in the Pacific, through the Pacific Islands Forum and associated Pacific organisations, for example the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environmental Programme (SPREP). NZAID [external link], as the Government’s international aid and development agency, is the principal conduit of support to the Pacific region.
Bilateral partnerships and engagement are an important part of the global response to climate change. New Zealand actively engages and cooperates with a number of countries on climate change issues including Australia, the US, the UK, Japan, China, the EU, and Canada.
