2. Question No. 2—Climate ChangeMARAMA DAVIDSON (Co-Leader—Green) to the Minister for Climate ChangeQuestion No. 2—Climate Change2. MARAMA DAVIDSON (Co-Leader—Green) to the Minister for Climate Change: What recent announcements has he made regarding climate change?Hon JAMES SHAW (Minister for Climate Change): This morning the Prime Minister and I announced the introduction into Parliament of the Climate Change Response (Zero Carbon) Amendment Bill commonly known as the zero carbon bill. Now in April of this year tens of thousands of school students went on strike to protest the lack of decisive action on climate change. We are acting now. The zero carbon bill outlines our plan for the next 30 years to safeguard the future of those students and of their own children. This is not the end of the journey but it is a good start.Marama Davidson: How will the zero carbon bill contribute to the global effort to limit warming to 1.5 degrees above pre-industrial levels?Hon JAMES SHAW: Reducing emissions of our long-lived gases including carbon dioxide to net zero means that those emissions will no longer contribute to further global warming. The target range for biogenic methane is consistent with the central range of scenarios presented by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in its most recent report which limit global warming to 1.5 degrees with limited or no overshoot.Marama Davidson: Why does the zero carbon bill propose a split-target approach with biological methane separated from all other gases?Hon JAMES SHAW: A split-gas approach enables a target with a definite temperature outcome which lets us aim it at the goal of the Paris Agreement to limit warming to 1.5 degrees. Emissions of short-lived gases do not need to reduce to zero in order to limit their effect on global warming whereas emissions of long-lived gases need to be reduced to net zero or below. The target in the bill is consistent with the latest science on what is required for the world to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees.Marama Davidson: What steps will be taken to ensure the transition to a climate-safe future prioritises the needs of our most vulnerable and exposed communities and the interests of tangata whenua?Hon JAMES SHAW: The bill sets the framework for our transition but as we decide what policies are needed to support us in reaching the budgets and the target we'll need to carefully consider their impact on communities and in the interests of tangata whenua. What the bill does do up front is require particular attention be given to seeking nominations from iwi and Māori representative organisations for the climate change commission. Under the bill we must include an emissions reduction plan a strategy to recognise and mitigate the impacts on iwi and Māori of reducing emissions and we must ensure that iwi Māori have been adequately consulted on that plan. In preparing a plan we have to take into account the economic social health environmental ecological and cultural effects of climate change on iwi and Māori. Marama Davidson: What impact will this bill have on New Zealand's ability to meet the social and economic needs of all citizens through to 2050?Hon JAMES SHAW: The economic analysis that we did when we did the consultation on the zero carbon bill last year showed that the difference in terms of long-term economic impact between the existing 2050 target that was gazetted by the Rt Hon John Key of a 50 percent reduction below 1990 levels and the new target that we are proposing in this legislation is approximately 0.2 percent—in other words it's marginal. Countries that have reduced their emissions over the course of the last 10 years have all seen their economies continue to grow and develop and household incomes continue to grow also. For example in the United Kingdom they've seen a 42 percent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions and have had the fastest-growing economy in the European Union over the same period of time. So the idea that this is a sunk cost to the economy is not borne out by what's actually happening on the ground around the world. The transition to a low-carbon economy is as I've said actually the single greatest economic opportunity in at least a generation.Todd Muller: Will the Minister recommence good-faith negotiations with the National Party to find common ground on a methane target?Hon JAMES SHAW: Obviously the bill has now entered into the House but I am always prepared of course to talk to my colleagues in the National Party about the shape of the bill and I look forward to the select committee process and to seeing what that throws up.Todd Muller: Does he classify good-faith negotiations as meeting in early March on targets silence for eight weeks and then being handed a bill on Monday afternoon?Hon JAMES SHAW: I want to apologise to Mr Muller personally for some of the background process here which has not gone as I would have liked—nor in fact was what I had intended. The bill is obviously very contentious and you can see some of that in the reaction in the media today. So what we have done I think represents the best consensus that we can build at this point in time across New Zealand society. I think that the diversity of views that are represented here in this Parliament approximate that.Todd Muller: Could you please elucidate for the House what you mean when you say background process"?SPEAKER: Substitute "he" for a "you" and go for it.Hon JAMES SHAW: Quite simply that over the course of the last 18 months there have been a series of rounds of consultation not just with the National Party but with other political parties and also with other organisations outside this House—in particular agricultural sector organisations iwi environmental organisations scientists and others."