NEW ZEALAND COMMENTS ON EARTH OBSERVATIONS: DRAFT

UNCLAS WELLINGTON 000717 SIPDIS DEPT FOR EAP/ANP, OES/EGC E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: SENV TSPL NZ SUBJECT: NEW ZEALAND COMMENTS ON EARTH OBSERVATIONS: DRAFT GOVERNANCE MECHANISM REF: STATE 160311 ¶1. Pip Wilson, Environment Division, New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, provided the GoNZ's response to reftel request for comments on the future governance mechanism for the Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS,) and noted that Peter Stevens, from the New Zealand Climate Change Office, would be coordinating this and any further discussion on issues related to the Group on Earth Observations (GEO.) Wilson stated that overall the GoNZ was &relatively comfortable8 with the draft governance mechanism as posited, and added that the GoNZ had proposed additional recommendations to the Secretariat. ¶2. New Zealand's recommendations were as follows: - Retitle the document from GEO to &The DRAFT Declaration on the Establishment of the Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS).8 - In paragraph 9, soften or remove the language on restricting meeting attendance, because it's not in line with the inclusive nature of the organization. - In paragraph 12, the Executive Committee should represent diverse needs and priorities of its members. (Note: This is New Zealand's flag to keep the smaller Pacific nations in mind when selecting the Executive Committee.) - In paragraph 13, there should only be two co-chairs for the Executive Committee. One should represent a developed country, and the other a developing country. The term of the co-chairs should be off-set to coordinate the passing on of institutional knowledge. Swindells