Post-forum

Here you can find information from the PCE20 Forum on 1-2 March 2007 including:

Radio New Zealand National recorded much of the forum. From 3 June they broadcast five programmes based on its panel discussions, and you can listen to them here:

June 3	1.	The state of the environment
June 10	2.	Northern hemisphere perspectives
June 17	3.	Sustainable development initiatives
June 24	4.	Sustainability and our social and cultural aspirations
June 31	5.	Sustainability and our economic future

You can also download the programmes as podcasts, so you can listen to them at your leisure

• Speaker the Hon Margaret Wilson gave the Forum's opening remarks. Her themes included New Zealanders' growing concern about environmental issues including climate change; the PCE's tackling of sustainability issues; and New Zealand's struggle to make sustainability laws work...>>>

• Dr Morgan Williams, Commissioner 1997-2007, set the scene by drawing on 10 years as PCE to outline what New Zealand must do to become more sustainable. Four graphs illustrate the rising pressure on our resources, and the growing gap between our economic performance and satisfaction with our quality of life... >>>

• David Parker, Minister of Energy and Minister responsible for Climate Change Issues said climate change is one of the greatest challenges we face. Sustainability makes sense, and the Minister has detected an appetite for new ways of doing things. One government aim is to make all new electricity generation renewable... >>>

Who was there... from the forum sessions, and the dinner...>>>

A feeling exists in New Zealand that it needs to draw on traditions that helped define its character, such as its nuclear free stance, if it is to successfully tackle the challenge of sustainability, says forum guest Dr Guenther Bachmann, Director of the German Council for Sustainable Development.

In a post-forum report to colleagues on returning to Germany, he said New Zealand has some enormous advantages but political leaders are "desperately in need of a more strategic approach for New Zealand's future"... >>> (0.04 MB pdf, 4 pages)