US embassy cable - 04WELLINGTON717

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