From the ashes

The SkyCity convention centre fire was a bad omen. The Covid-19 pandemic had shut borders and rising tensions between the United States and China threatened any progress. Yet New Zealand comes away claiming some significant wins from its hosting of Apec.

The scene was set. The burning omen that was the SkyCity convention centre fire had taken out New

Zealand’s chosen venue, the emergence of the Covid-19 pandemic had shuttered borders, and the rising tensions between the US and China was threatening any promise of progress.

New Zealand was to host the 21 countries of Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) after years of difficulty for the forum. The fastescalating pandemic had disrupted Malaysia’s 2020 event, Chile’s 2019 leaders’ summit was cancelled due to domestic protests, and in Papua New Guinea in 2018 the leaders couldn’t agree on a final statement as the United States and China openly bickered over trade.

But a year on, after 300 virtual meetings often held in the hours before dawn, New Zealand comes away claiming tangible wins in the face of the Covid-19 and climate crises. And Apec now has a path forward, a 20-year plan with a distinctly New Zealand feel.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, in an interview with Stuff before the final leaders’ summit, said New Zealand had ‘‘shifted the dial’’ for the forum. ‘‘The team has done a fantastic job. There’s really tangible stuff there. And it will make a difference in the long term,’’ she said. Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade deputy secretary Vangelis Vitalis said Apec had been ‘‘repositioned and stabilised’’ after New Zealand’s hosting year, despite rension between some of the big economies – US, China, and Russia – playing out ‘‘in an unhelpful way’’. ‘‘You’re operating in a context where there’s geopolitical tension, there’s rising protectionism, and there’s this kind of inward looking nationalism . . . Despite that, people were able to pull together at the last minute – and there were some close calls – but they were able to get things done.’’

NEW ZEALAND’S BIG MOVE – THE ‘INFORMAL MEETING’

It was apparent early on that Apec would be missing something, Ardern said. That informality ‘‘around the margins’’ of meetings, where ideas are shared and built upon without being stifled by the formality of the formal leaders’ summit, was going to be lost over video conference.

‘‘We were trying to think of ways that we could bring in additional engagement that allowed us to talk about the issues of the day, and acknowledged that if we wanted to make progress as Apec economies beyond just the here and now of the pandemic, we had to have a way that we could engage on the immediate concerns of the pandemic,’’ Ardern said.

The response: An unprecedented informal meeting held in July. The meeting was the first between President Xi Jinping and US President Joe Biden, who had been in the job for six months.

As Vitalis and his officials worked to persuade the 21 economies a meeting was needed, all were thinking, ‘‘How do we grapple with this?’’

‘‘It was about Apec responding, it was not about bilateral, geostrategic challenges ... the prime minister was very focused on this is about responding to an economic and health crisis.’’

The outcome of the informal meeting was a commitment to reducing tariffs on Covid-19 vaccines, eliminating trade barriers on vaccine-related goods, and generally easing the passage of both across borders by digitisation of processed. New Zealand had been pushing for an outright end to tariffs for Covid-19 vaccines, which wasn’t quite reached.

‘‘It’s an aspiration that we set, 17 economies have joined in that either with lowering or removal [of tariffs], and we haven’t set an endpoint to continuing with progress on that,’’ Ardern said.

The great power tension was present. Vitalis said that, while leaders, ministers, and officials could be courteous during meetings – it was a different story outside the large video calls. ‘‘They’re not so courteous in their private conversations with the chair [New Zealand], or to one another through the chair.

‘‘There were some, you know, pretty difficult moments, but they don’t play out at the ministerial or the leaders level, but they do play out in the behind the scenes where our teams were trying to find ways to navigate difference, and at times that was proving to be difficult to achieve.’’

CLIMATE CHANGE AND FOSSIL FUEL SUBSIDIES

Climate change wasn’t on the Apec agenda some four years ago, Ardern said in the aftermath of the leaders’ summit last Saturday. ‘‘When I first attended an Apec meeting, I was amongst a small group of leaders who at that time were raising issues around climate change.

‘‘To fast-forward to this hosting year, to see one of the tangible agreements being the agreement for a standstill on fossil fuel subsidies is significant.’’

Fossil fuel subsidies – the practice of governments subsiding the production or consumption of fossil fuels, to encourage economic growth – have been on the Apec agenda for a decade, and both within and outside Apec New Zealand has been advocating for abolition of the subsidies. Proving that even a ‘‘standstill’’ on new subsidies could be a tough achievement at Apec is that, according to the International Energy Agency, three Apec countries are among the top 10 fossil fuel subsidy users: China, Russia, and Indonesia.

‘‘We’ve made this agreement at a time when economies are looking to stimulate their economies, they’re looking to recover from Covid-19,’’ Ardern said.

‘‘It’s been brought to light for some [Apec economies] that they spend more on fossil fuel subsidies than on healthcare, and I think that’s been a real awakening for many members.’’

But commitment is voluntary and

couched in cautious language.

The fine print of the agreement among Apec ministers showed ministers had received advice on what ‘‘could’’ be done ‘‘for those members, in a position to do so, to pursue a voluntary standstill on inefficient fossil fuel subsidies.’’

‘‘We [the ministers] call for member economies to take forward discussions in 2022 to facilitate future implementation.’’

Vitalis said that, as with efforts to budge countries on vaccine tariffs and fast tracking customs processes for medical equipment, the language couldn’t be firm.

‘‘Fossil fuels was clearly a contentious [issue], which is why you’ve got a classic

kind of Apec solution . . . you find a form of words that allows each member economy to find a way into it.’’

At a broad level, climate change has been placed firmly on Apec’s agenda.

In 2020, the leaders’ declaration made one mention of climate change, saying Apec countries would back ‘‘economic policies and growth that support global efforts to tackle climate change’’.

The 2021 declaration pushed further: ‘‘We acknowledge the need for urgent and concrete action to transition to a climateresilient future global economy . . . We will further integrate action on climate change across relevant Apec workstreams.’’

Vitalis said Apec countries now acknowledged that the possible environmentally harmful effects of any economic reform needed to be considered.

‘‘If you think about the fact that, you know, our region, the 21 of us are responsible for 60 per cent of global emissions. It was about time that we took responsibility and said, ‘All right, what are we going to do about this?’ ’’

A TOUCH OF AOTEAROA IN APEC’S FUTURE

When opening Apec 2021, at an in-person event attended by Apec diplomats at the Wharewaka function centre in Wellington, Foreign Minister Nanaia Mahuta emphasised in her speech the prominence New Zealand would give to the Ma¯ ori economy (worth an estimated $70 billion annually) at the forum.

She said, when New Zealand hosted of Apec in 1999, ‘‘Ma¯ ori were largely invisible in New Zealand’s hosting and were mostly reduced to ceremonial and cultural roles’’.

But putting indigenous peoples on the agenda was a battle. Vitalis said some Apec members did not agree that there were indigenous peoples, and, even if they did, they considered it inappropriate to include indigenous peoples in the forum’s work.

‘‘I’m not going to name names, but it’s fair to say that it was a pretty lonely task for quite a while. We did get good support from some of the economies that you’d expect – Australia, Canada – but there were others for whom this was a very serious problem,’’ Vitalis said.

‘‘This is one of the things that only got resolved right at the end.’’

He said there was an ‘‘unmistakable push’’ for this from New Zealand that helped persuade Apec members. Every one of the 17 Government ministers who chaired meetings spoke of the inclusion of indigenous peoples, and having the mana of Mahuta speak on the subject ‘‘drove that agenda very forcefully’’.

But, indicating that New Zealand’s efforts will remain on Apec’s agenda is that indigenous peoples have been included in a new 20-year plan for how Apec countries will reach its 2040 ‘‘vision’’. The plan has a distinctly New Zealand feel. As host country, New Zealand was able to choose the name of the plan, titling it ‘‘The Aotearoa Goals’’.