07/04/2005 - The Australian
Minister for Environment and Heritage, Senator
Ian Campbell, and Convenor of New Zealand's
Ministerial Group on Climate Change, Pete
Hodgson, will host a climate change forum
between the countries in Sydney across the
7th and 8th of April.
Almost 100 industry and government leaders
will attend the invitation-only event.
"We need an effective global response
to climate change and Australia has committed
to playing a leadership role in this process,"
Senator Campbell said.
"Industry and government leaders from
both countries will meet to find common ground
on the most effective ways of combating climate
change, to exchange ideas on the latest low
emissions technology and agree on what we
can do in a regional sense that will feed
into the global strategy."
Convenor of New Zealand's Ministerial Group
on Climate Change, Pete Hodgson, said the
Kyoto Protocol had just come into force and
governments and industry were starting to
consider what would come next.
"The forum provides an excellent opportunity
for Australian and New Zealand industry and
other stakeholders to offer local perspectives
on possible future global responses to climate
change. For New Zealand this means exploring
options for action in addition to the Kyoto
Protocol," Mr Hodgson said.
"Options for further action range from
voluntary cooperation on technology development
to mandatory frameworks embracing all countries.
Discussion at the forum will consider the
advantages and disadvantages of all these
approaches."
The Australia-New Zealand Climate Forum will
be facilitated by the Pew Centre on Global
Climate Change, a leading US think-tank, which
is conducting a series of high-level international
dialogues on future global action on climate
change.
