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Climate Change Minister David Parker says the Bali summit on global warming achieved more than he had expected.
Mr Parker has just returned from the meeting, where nearly 200 nations agreed to develop a pact that will follow the Kyoto Protocol on the reduction of greenhouse gases when it expires in 2012.
A last-minute breakthrough was achieved at the weekend when the United States agreed to a "roadmap" for negotiations that will lead to another summit in Copenhagen in 2009.
"For the first time, we've got the United States agreeing that it needs to make efforts that are comparable to other developed countries, and that was a major shift," Mr Parker said today.
"It is an enormous change to have the biggest emitter in the world, the United States, agreeing to use its enormous technological muscle and its financial might to turn this around."
At the summit the European Union fought for binding targets to be put into the final communique, but did not get it because of opposition from developing countries.
However, Mr Parker said developing countries had for the first time acknowledged they had to play a role in reducing emissions worldwide.
"The Europeans didn't get their exact wording, but a key principle is that the overall target for the world is needed," he said on Radio New Zealand.
"I would say Bali achieved more than I had expected it to achieve."
Greenpeace New Zealand praised the Government's support for the summit's aims.
"Despite a slow and initially quiet start, New Zealand's behaviour during the course of these talks has gradually come to resemble the kind of leadership necessary on global climate change," said spokesman Jim Footner.
"The deal coming out of Bali is by no means perfect...but now at least we have a framework that means it's possible to construct an effective and ambitious agreement."
Green Party co-leader Jeanette Fitzsimons said the outcome was "pretty inadequate and disappointing" but at least all the nations participating had agreed to keep talking.
- NZPA
