17. New Zealand

Abstract

This report covers both the 2014 and 2015 calendar years. In regard to climate change, Aotearoa/New Zealand made a pledge towards the Green Climate Fund (GCF) and was questioned under the new multilateral assessment process in Lima. In 2015, New Zealand submitted its intended nationally determined contribution (INDC) as well as its Report upon Expiration of the Additional Period for Fulfilling Commitments by New Zealand, joined the Global Geothermal Alliance, ratified the Doha Amendment to the Kyoto Protocol to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), and delivered a communiqué to the UNFCCC executive secretary calling for the removal of fossil fuel subsidies. In the Pacific region, New Zealand attended the forty-fifth and forty-sixth (2014 and 2015, respectively) Pacific Island Forums, both of which considered fisheries and climate change issues including rising sea levels. The Scientific Committee of the International Whaling Commission (IWC SC) reiterated its grave concerns about the survival of the critically endangered Māui dolphin and considered that the New Zealand measures to protect them fell short. New Zealand ratified the UN Food and Agriculture Organization’s (FAO) Agreement on Port State Measures to Prevent, Deter and Eliminate Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated (IUU) Fishing (Port State Measures Agreement), became a party to three international maritime conventions, and signed the Agreement on Strengthening Implementation of the Niue Treaty on Cooperation in Fisheries Surveillance and Law Enforcement in the South Pacific Region (Niue Treaty Subsidiary Agreement). New Zealand also undertook surveillance patrols in the Southern Ocean, welcomed the 2014 decision of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in the Case Concerning Whaling in the Antarctic (Australia v Japan: New Zealand intervening), and, subsequently, condemned Japan’s decision to resume whaling in the Southern Ocean in the 2015–16 season.