KEY POINTS:
EXCLUSIVE - Public servants will have to make do with vehicles of 1800cc or less, if legislation proposed by the Green Party makes it onto the statute books.
At the moment almost three-quarters of them have bigger engines than that and accordingly higher emissions of greenhouse gases.
The bill would also require all passenger vehicles bought or leased by state sector organisations to among the top 10 per cent for fuel economy among vehicles of their size. There would be exemptions for the police and emergency services.
The bill is one of six private members bills the Greens are putting into the ballot.
Another would require airlines to bring their net emissions of greenhouse gases down to 1990 level by 2012.
Airlines have few options for improving the efficiency with which they use fuel, Greens co-leader Jeanette Fitzsimons acknowledged, so they would be allowed to use offsets like forests that take carbon out of the atmosphere.
But the bill also contains a more stringent provision that would cap airlines' gross emissions at 2007 levels. It would apply to both domestic and international flights.
There is also a bill to scrap the daily fixed charge from consumers' power bills, requiring power companies to charge domestic consumers for energy only on the basis of the number of units of electricity they use.
"At the moment it is possible for a consumer to save half of their power but only get a quarter off their power bill," she said.
Another bill sets targets for the electrification of parts of the rail network and would require the rail operator, Toll NZ, to use biodiesel in trains running those
parts of the network not electrified by 2012.
They also want the share of the Land Transport Management Fund which is allocated to public transport, walking and cycling, rail and coastal shipping to be increased from a fifth now to two-thirds over the next five years.
And if the sixth bill is drawn in the ballot -- and passes through the law making process -- sustainability and climate change impacts will be added to the factor the New Zealand Superannuation Fund's guardians must considers when setting their investment strategy.
The Greens object to the Cullen fund investing in the oil giant ExxonMobil, which they accuse of being a major funder of the climate change denial "industry".
"We welcome the newfound commitment from Labour and National to address climate change," Ms Fitzsimons said. "We would challenge them to either support these bills or come up with something better instead."
* In tomorrow's Weekend Herald, a full investigation into climate change and what you can do about it.
