Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment Te Kaitiaki Taiao a Te Whare Päremata www.pce.govt.nz
Media release

28 February 2007

Major sustainability forum opens in Wellington tomorrow

A landmark forum, ‘Advancing environmental sustainability in New Zealand’, begins in Wellington tomorrow.

The two-day forum is being organised by the Office of the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment (PCE), which celebrates its 20th anniversary this year, and will bring together more than 60 international and New Zealand speakers.

Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment Dr Morgan Williams says the forum will look at New Zealand’s sustainability progress over the past 20 years and at what the next 20 may hold.

“Last year’s Stern Report and the recent Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reports have laid out the evidence for climate change and the economic rationale for urgent action. The bold commitment to sustainability by Prime Minister Helen Clark on the opening of Parliament on 13 February acknowledges that urgency,” Dr Williams says.

“The evidence that we are living unsustainably is emerging from many of our physical sciences. The challenge is to bring about a deep redesign of the way we live, and inevitably this will require major changes in our values, beliefs and behaviours. This will place great demands on our social and economic sciences, our education and learning systems, and our capacity to build political consensus for long-term policies.

“The forum is intended to generate serious discussion about how we can create a more sustainable society. It’s about exchanging views and ideas, and developing new thoughts on how New Zealand can make progress.”

Ends

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