An arrangement signed by New Zealand and China this week paves the way for future forestry cooperation and boosting bilateral trade, NZ Forestry Minister Shane Jones says. The arrangement was signed on Monday in Wellington by Shane Jones and Mr Zhang Jianlong, the Administrator of China’s National Forestry and Grasslands Administration. 

“The updated arrangement supports and strengthens links between government, industry and research institutes in New Zealand and China. It provides a framework to address matters such as sustainability, wood processing and utilisation, and trade and investment,” Shane Jones said. 

“The forestry sector is an important and growing part of our bilateral trade with China, with export revenue topping NZ$3.2 billion in the year ending 2018. Much of this growth has come from increased Chinese demand for New Zealand forestry products, supporting both continued high prices and record export volumes”. 

“A number of Chinese companies choose to use wood sourced from New Zealand for their manufacturing, and I’m keen to see how we can grow the relationship further, especially for our respective wood processing industries”. 

“With my Chinese counterpart, I have agreed that officials will cooperate to encourage increased trade, including in value-added wood products. I’m pleased to announce that we will hold talks in China later this year, which industry will be invited to, to promote government-to-government and industry-to-industry collaboration”. 

“Ensuring an end-to-end value chain for our logs and forest products, along with our relationships with trading partners, including China, are an important part of achieving these aspirations,” Shane Jones said. ​

​NOTED ecologist and former leader of Greenpeace Dr Patrick Moore has been elected chair of the CO2 Coalition, a US conservative think tank. 
The board of directors will explain how the increase in CO2 in the atmosphere from human emissions is spurring increased growth of forests, crops and plants. They will also focus on discussing how CO2 is also a very weak greenhouse gas that may have the added benefit of slight warming of the climate.
US government data showing that the modest warming, even if caused in part by industrial CO2,  has resulted in no increase in extreme weather such as hurricanes and droughts or changes in the rate of sea-level rise.
Former chairman Dr. William Happer, an atmospheric physicist, recently left the CO2 Coalition to become a senior director on the National Security Council, where he has proposed a presidential commission to review the science behind claims that climate change threatens national security.
Dr. Moore is a co-founder of Greenpeace and served in the leadership for 15 years, including as a director of Greenpeace International from 1979-1986. He received the Einstein Society’s National Award for Nuclear Science and History in 2009.
Commenting on his new role, Dr. Moore said: “We aim to position the CO2 Coalition as the go-to source for information on the benefits of CO2 for the environment and civilisation.”
He said human CO2 emissions were causing a “greening of Earth”, which will increase agricultural and forestry production, as well as increasing the fertility and abundance of global ecosystems.”