John Key

New Zealand will strongly argue that its agricultural economy will have to be taken into account as countries thrash out a new agreement on climate change.

About 10,600 delegates from 186 governments, businesses and environmental groups will meet overnight in the Polish city of Poznan for two weeks of talks.

The meeting marks the halfway point of a two-year push to agree a new climate treaty in Copenhagen at the end of 2009, to succeed the Kyoto Protocol which expires in 2012.

Much of the debate is about trying to agree on an overall emissions cut by developed nations of 25 percent to 40 percent by 2020, though the final target is not likely to be set until the Copenhagen meeting.

There is also a great deal of argument about the rules on issues such as how forests are dealt with and the unique nature of each country.

New Zealand has already indicated that it will not be signing up to a target until it knows the rules that countries' emissions performance will be measured by.

Prime Minister John Key said New Zealand would be formally outlining its position in the near future, but he indicated that New Zealand would be fighting hard over agriculture.

"We need to balance our environmental responsibilities against our economic opportunities," Mr Key said.

New Zealand was unique in that it was a developed country but its economic base was agriculture and it was difficult to cut emissions without cutting production.

If the effect of the agreement was a cut in New Zealand's agricultural output, this would be picked up by other less efficient countries not bound by the same rules, and no one would be better off, Mr Key argued.

"We might achieve the worst of all outcomes, higher emissions, a lower level of output and greater pressure on food prices.

"This is a balancing equation and I am confident that we achieve a good outcome for New Zealand's point of view and from New Zealand playing its part with climate change."

Australia had negotiated better rules than New Zealand when it came to land use change under the Kyoto Protocol

"That is an inconsistency," Mr Key said.

"We will be taking climate change seriously, you can expect us to play our part in the world, but you can also expect us to negotiate aggressively for our corner and I think that is the right thing to do."

Mr Key said the agreement with ACT to include a select committee inquiry looking at whether climate change was real was part of his government formation deal.

He did not believe it would damage New Zealand's standing in the climate change talks.

"From National's perspective...we believe human induced climate change is occurring and we intend to address it."

The main purpose of the committee was to review the emissions trading scheme and no country would be alarmed at New Zealand reviewing what National believed was a flawed system.

Green Party co-leader Russel Norman said New Zealand should be showing leadership and focus on targets, not on the rules around farming and forests.

"Our actions to exclude our largest pollution sources, can only lead to other countries seeking to do the same," Dr Norman said.

"If this happens we will undermine the talks and we will be targeted as a global climate criminal.

"Tourism Minister John Key will oversee a great leap backwards in our tourism industry."

New Zealand had a poor record on climate policy with emissions increasing by 26 percent since 1990 , he said.

NZPA PAR Reuters il