July 18, 2018
China partner in climate clean up
Climate Change Minister James Shaw says New Zealand could be working closely with China on efforts to address climate and environmental challenges.
He's just back from China, where he talked to his counterpart Li Ganjie, and he's about to go back on the road talking to the public about what needs to go into his bill to cut carbon emissions to zero by 2050.
He says Chinese president Xi Jinping has made climate change and the environment one of his country's top three priorities, and that leadership is having an effect.
"I was very pleasantly surprised at how open they were and how keen they are to work across quite a broad range of things, everything from electric vehicles to emissions trading schemes to forestry, you name it, they are throwing everything at this challenge as well so it is good to have a partner in it," Mr Shaw says.
He says the Zero Carbon Bill needs to carefully consider the position of the Treaty of Waitangi, because it would not be acceptable if Māori economic interests were put at risk for the needs of the wider economy, as has happened too often over the past 170 years.
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