New Zealand’s government announced in a statement on Nov.9 that it is not in the country’s interests to be “stuck in the Kyoto space for another eight years”, only a few weeks before nations will meet in Doha for 
the next round of climate negotiations. Like most Kiwis, I pride myself with New Zealand’s commitment to a “100 percent green and clean image.” But after hearing this latest news, I have never felt so embarrassed to be a New Zealander. For me, this disappointing decision reflects a failure not only by our policy-makers, but also negligence and indifference on the part of my fellow Kiwis to push our leaders for more leadership on climate change
Climate change once more attracts the attention of Heads of States, country negotiators, civil society, the private sector and individuals from around the globe as we approach the 18th Conference of the Parties (COP 18) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) to be held in Doha, Qatar, in only 2 weeks. One may hypothesize that the very diversity of backgrounds that participants bring to the conference exemplifies one of the main problems of the climate negotiations – how can fruitful communication really be enabled to unify the different areas of work in climate change?
The world will be watching closely as Party countries negotiate in the official climate change negotiations of the international community, over a second commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol, which to…
