Hon Tim Groser
Minister Responsible for International Climate Change Negotiations
1 December 2010
Media Statement
Groser to play key role in UN climate change conference
Minister for International Climate Change Negotiations, Tim Groser, will travel to Cancun, Mexico, from December 1-14 to
attend the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change’s annual conference. This will be the first full
meeting at Ministerial level since the Copenhagen Climate Change meeting in December last year.
At Cancun, Mr Groser will play a key role in the negotiations as a facilitator on the issues of mitigation and
measurement, reporting and verification.
“These are highly technical issues but a gateway to any positive result from the Cancun meeting. In plain language the
issue is to find agreed ways to measure individual countries’ efforts to reduce their emissions, to allow an informed
debate about how these efforts can be compared with each other and to enable countries to verify whether their
commitments are indeed being met. Agreement on this point is central to any deal at Cancun,” said Mr Groser.
Following last year’s challenging climate change conference in Copenhagen, states will be working together at Cancun to
re-gather momentum and consolidate progress in the negotiations.
“New Zealand will seek a balanced package of decisions at Cancun towards an effective, legally-binding, global agreement
on climate change, building on the political understandings in the Copenhagen Accord,” said Mr Groser.
“It is important that we demonstrate substantive progress at Cancun, and send a message that there is still strong
political leadership of the international climate change negotiations”.
ENDS