5. Climate Change Policy—Leadership and Donald TrumpJAMES SHAW (Co-Leader—Green) to the Prime MinisterClimate Change Policy—Leadership and Donald Trump5. JAMES SHAW (Co-Leader—Green) to the Prime Minister: Is he committed to all his Government's policies?Rt Hon JOHN KEY (Prime Minister): Yes.James Shaw: Is he committed to cutting New Zealand's domestic greenhouse gas emissions despite US President-elect Donald Trump's stated commitment to withdrawing from the Paris Agreement and to investing heavily in coal?Rt Hon JOHN KEY: Yes and I think that is one of the things that the Government has been saying for a long period of time: that we have got a plan when it comes to climate change. I think we have been very consistent about implementing that plan. I think it is consistent with best practice in the world except that the Government has always said that it wants to be a fast follower not a leader. But we are committed to the commitments we made in Paris and we do not have any intention to change them.James Shaw: Would he be prepared to re-evaluate his position of New Zealand as a fast follower on climate change given the calls for greater leadership at the Marrakech climate change conference which wraps up on Friday?Rt Hon JOHN KEY: Well the Minister is there—Paula Bennett is representing the Government. I do not think there is a need for New Zealand to change what it is doing. I think that in areas where we really can be a leader which I think have always been agricultural emissions and scientific work we really are doing good work there. I think that in terms of our emissions trading scheme as I have so often said others may claim to have one but very few seem to have one that is across most sectors and operating pretty well. The Government is on track to be 90 percent renewable from an energy perspective by 2025. I think that by most measures we have been quite consistent in our view when it comes to climate change. Some countries if you think about it over the last 8 years have made soaring comments in both directions. I think we have plotted a middle path and it is probably proving to be about right.James Shaw: Would he be prepared to join Ban Ki-moon and Francois Hollande and call on Mr Trump to drop his campaign pledge to cancel the Paris climate agreement?Rt Hon JOHN KEY: I think a better way to phrase that would be—having had a conversation with the President-elect this morning we expressed an interest at an appropriate point after he is sworn in to have a more broad discussion about a range of issues including trade and climate change would be one of those. I personally hope that the United States will actually honour the commitments that were made in Paris because if you look—as I have argued so often to this House—the issue of climate change is a global issue but we really need those huge emitters to be part of the solution. That includes the United States China and of course India. The genesis of the work that President Obama took to Paris was really a bipartisan agreement reached with Xi Jinping from China. So the risk of course is that if the United States is not actively engaged other big emitters might not be as well. Given the very strong scientific evidence about the rate of global warming that is taking place I think that that would be very dangerous for the planet and for countries so we will certainly be raising the issue of climate change along with a number of others when we talk to the President-elect when he becomes President of the United States.James Shaw: Given the probable loss of US leadership on climate change will New Zealand demonstrate greater leadership by for example ending deep-sea oil exploration in our oceans?Rt Hon JOHN KEY: No and I think the reason for that is that as we have often said there is no question that the world is going to move towards fewer fossil fuels and more efficiency over time. But I genuinely believe that if New Zealand stopped drilling for deep-sea oil or for oil in general then that oil would just be found from another source supplied by another country. I do not think that it would actually achieve anything.