UN General Assembly
2010

This year significant gains have been made in global disarmament. New Zealand welcomes the action plan adopted at this year’s Non-Proliferation Treaty Review Conference, the groundbreaking nuclear security summit, and the entry into force of the Convention on Cluster Munitions. These are tangible and practical successes. But we still face some significant challenges. New Zealand is concerned by the continuing inertia of the Conference on Disarmament. The Secretary-General’s High-level Meeting on disarmament this morning was a valuable step in acknowledging this problem and trying to find a way forward. As a country that prides itself on sustainable development, New Zealand is also greatly concerned about global environmental issues. As well as working towards an outcome in Cancún, we are involved in practical projects for addressing climate change. One such project is the Global Research Alliance on Agricultural Greenhouse Gases. Fourteen per cent of worldwide greenhouse-gas emissions come from agriculture. At the same time, there are projections that world food production needs to increase by 50 per cent in the next 20 years, and to double in the next 40 years,