KEY POINTS:
Achim Steiner sits in the foyer of the Sky City Grand Hotel surrounded by people listening intently and pushing pieces of paper at him. There's Nick Nuttal, his press adviser, formerly of The Times of London, plus John Tregidga and Tim Higham of the ARC's Hauraki Gulf Forum, who are looking for advice on management of the country's first co-operatively managed marine park.
But Steiner's vision is not just for the few hundred hectares of endangered water of the Hauraki Gulf. As executive director of the United Nations Environment Programme, his vision is for the future of the world.
And surprisingly, Steiner looks happy about how the world is going. A smile curls the corners of his mouth as he outlines why he genuinely believes the 190-plus countries of the world will pull together and avert the global warming crisis. Indeed, he says, they are already doing it.
At just 47 Steiner brings two vital components to this job: a Masters degree in conservation economics plus an enviable skill for knitting political factions together. His inspirational style bounces above problems that would drown most of us. The bad news _ of which there is plenty in the global warming field _ is contradicted by the good news, no matter how small.
Ethanol? No problem.
America? It's about to happen. They are poised on the brink of a green revolution.
India? "It's had a renewable energy programme for the last 40 years and is a global leader in the field. An Indian company, Suzon, is now the second-largest manufacturer of gear boxes for wind turbines. Delhi is introducing eco-friendly gas natural buses."
Surely not China? But yes, Steiner has a good news there too. One city, he says, has already replaced 70 per cent of its water heating with solar. "China is on a path of change. And they're able and willing to pay the price of change. But", and his eyes gleam behind the rimless glasses, "they're damned if they'll do it if America is not willing to."
Here in New Zealand we are "trailblazers" for the way ahead. "We are not here for World Environment Day just by chance," says Steiner in his slightly Germanic English. "We were looking for a country that could symbolise a more conscientious society.
"New Zealand has a visionary approach to dealing with natural, resource-based, economy," he continues. "7.5 per cent of your territory is under marine protection, compared with 0.75 per cent for the rest of the world." The Hauraki Gulf Forum, which brings central, local and regional government together and is protected by an act of Parliament, is a brilliant example. "Marine conservation and land use are inextricably entwined. The forum is the best way of incubating consensus."
What Steiner wants to see now, after eight years, is action on the Gulf: "What firm targets should to be set?"
He advocates a "scalpel-like" approach to sustainable use. Manage down the negatives (set limits on waste water, sewage, livestock and other pollution) and manage up the positives (by managing tourism pressure, setting policies for land use around the coast and economic incentives for the right kind of developments).
Do not, he stresses, curtail people's use of the area where you don't need to curtail it. People taking an interest is the best hope for any conservation initiative."
Steiner was born and raised in Brazil. His conservation mathematics make sense. He adds the odd joke, effortlessly weaves in the themes his many masters want to promote. This is no number-crunching professor _ or green as grass conservationist.
As he explains, he arrived on Kofi Annan's radar when the then UN leader was trying to strengthen the professional side (as against the political side) of leadership in its institutions.
"The economy and environment had to find a way of relating to each other and the mix of being an economist with an environmental profile made my appointment a very interesting one. I was literally the candidate who came out of managing an international environmental organisation."
By then Steiner had spent around two decades working over five continents in governmental, non-governmental and international organisations. In Washington he led the development of new partnerships between the environment community, the World Bank and the United Nations system. In Southeast Asia he was chief technical adviser on the sustainable management of the Mekong River. In 1998 he was appointed secretary-general of the World Commission on Dams, based in South Africa, responsible for bringing together private, civil and public sectors to create a global policy on dam development. Next came the World Conservation Union, presiding over 1000 staff in 42 countries followed, five years later, by the UN job.
When they arrived at UN Environment Programme headquarters in Kenya in 2006, Steiner and his English-born wife, who he met in Zimbabwe, had two sons of three and five. And they loved it. "At 1800 metres altitude there's no malaria," he says. "The boys go to fantastic local private schools _ I think these will be some of the best schooling years in their life."
The downside is that safety is "difficult" particularly during the February electoral dispute. We have to be conscientious and careful of the way we move about, take precautionary measures."
Even Steiner is worried about the pace of climate change. Right now the globe is warming faster, much faster than than early predictions indicated. "We are actually starting to push past the limits, fisheries being a classic case. Models we use to assess the impact of global warming are being overtaken on a daily basis. The more we learn about global warming the more the pattern is escalating and accelerating. Melting of glaciers, sea level rise _ these are phenomenon that were almost inconceivable 10-20 years ago."
His recipe to avert disaster is, predictably, economics-based: "Find new ways where the economy and environment can relate to each other; change the economics of sustainability. Spending just 0.1 to 0.2 per cent of the world's GDP on reducing emissions for 30 years would do it.
Although, so far the signs of global warning have been local, the solution must be global. "We need frameworks that are cogniscent of the differences between countries _ without letting them get in the way of acting together _ and climate change is a perfect example of that." And if we don't pull together willingly we will be made to.
As he says,"Climate change is always seen as a cost to the economy but the first 25 to 35 per cent of emission reductions is a net gain to the economy because you're being more efficient, less wasteful. The less energy you use is a net benefit as a whole.
"We are far from having an optimal situation. But the building blocks are emerging."
"Transformation towards a greener economy means more resource efficient, less wasteful practice driven in part by economic price signals."
Already, he says, we can glimpse the greening of the global economy. "There is $150B worth of renewable energy, sufficiently embedded in the economy to be the fuel of choice. Green products are coming out of the lab, achieving market compatibility and moving to economies of scale."
The trick is carefully targeted support: to find the right balance and allow the economy to transition.
Steiner does not not share the doom and gloom about biofuels. As he points out, corn conversion is one of the first _ and crudest _ biofuels. Nor is it responsible for current world price hikes which have been caused by projections and futures traders.
New generation biofuels will include woodchips, crop waste, nuts grown on parched, formerly-barren land, wood broken down into biofuel by termite-enzymes and much more. "Correcting what biofuels are sustainable and what are not. Setting a framework so producers and consumers can talk to each other."
The danger, he says, comes from special interest groups or industries trying to overshadow the fact that becoming energy efficient is achievable and desirable: oil companies, industries that rely on fossil fuels _ even New Zealand farmers incensed over the "fart tax".
It is when we begin to talk about methane emissions from cattle that Steiner shows his economic breadth. "If you treat the farmer as a production maximising entity the effects are increasingly negating the gains to society. We have to find a way where the farmer becomes part of the solution. If you give the right incentives, and you support it with the right research, you can make farming not only economically viable but also offering social advantages."
Even America, after 20 years of scepticism, is on the brink of going green.
"All three [presidential] candidates accept global warming as a major issue. They know we need a price on carbon. They're willing to jump into a carbon trade system _ and they have the technology. They have just established a green stock exchange in New York with big names like Merrill Lynch and JP Morgan and will be trading UN-backed carbon certificates.
"So in the next five years we will see what America often does: it will take advantage of a market opportunity and invest heavily in renewable energy".
As Steiner points out, carbon credits may be mystifying to the general public, but they are more transparent and less risky than products like derivatives which led us into the sub-prime collapse _ and they will get the capitalists on board.
"The market has become real enough for the carbon industry to flourish. Companies are scrambling for carbon experts. Investors are looking for companies with the biggest carbon footprints because they're the ones where they'll be able to make the biggest, quickest gains.
"Capitalism is an odd thing, but given the right signals it can do intelligent things."
