Strategic Objective
To help enable the realisation of opportunities for sustainable economic development associated with the oceans around New Zealand. Background - CAE’s identification with Oceans goes back to organisation of a successful “Our Oceans” conference at Te Papa in 1999.
- Papers presented to this conference formed the basis for CAE’s publication, “Our Oceans: A Journey of Understanding” (CAE Comments 01), which was submitted to the Ministerial Advisory Committee on Oceans Policy during its extensive public consultation exercise in 2001. (Programme Chair Dr Mac Beggs was a member of that committee, which was chaired by former Governor General, Dame Cath Tizard).
- A presentation, The Development of Oceans Policy for New Zealand – a Perspective was made at the 2002 international conference of the Underwater Mining Institute, “New Perspectives on Seabed Mineral Deposits” in Wellington.
- In late 2002 CAE was invited to undertake a body of work for the Oceans Policy Secretariat within the Ministry for the Environment, and this project occupied several months of 2003, culminating in the publication, “Economic Opportunities in New Zealand’s Oceans: Informing the Development of Oceans Policy”. This effort consolidated identification of CAE as a constructive and substantive contributor to public policy in relation to Oceans, independent of the science providers and in effect, a proxy for future commercial stakeholders.
- Subsequent to completion of the report, the Programme Chair was retained by Ministry for the Environment to deliver presentations on the subject at an RMLA conference in November 2003, and to participate in several workshops and peer-review internal work through mid 2004.
- In late 2003 CAE conceived of the opportunity for an independent analysis of the consequences and relative merits of and risks associated with various scenarios for thermal fuels in New Zealand following the depletion of the Maui gas field. This study secured sponsorship from a number of major corporates as well as the Ministry of Economic Development and has been conducted by a small team nominally under the auspices of the CAE Oceans Programme. In highlighting the risk that the stock-take (through exploration) and development of New Zealand’s maritime resource endowment would be severely inhibited by a premature decision to commit to large-scale importation of thermal fuels, this project constitutes a further expression of CAE’s position with respect to Oceans. The “Post-Maui Thermal Fuel Options” study was completed towards the end of 2004.
- In February 2005, CAE co-sponsored Maritime 21, a one-day workshop held at Lincoln University. CAE’s particular contribution was a session comprising three papers and a forum discussion.
Contacts | Mac Beggs | – Chair, Programme Advisory Committee | | | – Programme Manager | e-mail mac@geosphere.co.nz
Phone +64 (04) 560 3586, (027) 454 6686
Fax +64 (04) 560 4645 |
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