Climate change minister James Shaw welcomes 'genuine' approach from Simon Bridges

Greens co-leader and Climate Change Minister James Shaw says cabinet will be making decisions in August. Photo / Nick Reed

Climate change minister James Shaw says he will consult National before taking proposals to cabinet to set up a Climate Change Commission and wants to involve them in the drafting of the law.

He welcomed a letter from National leader Simon Bridges to the Government on Friday seeking a bipartisan approach in establishing a Climate Change commission.

"I think it is a genuine offer," Shaw said.

"National as the so-called party of business has been hearing from particularly the corporate end of town who have been saying that there really has to be a stable policy environment that has to survive multiple changes of Government.

Shaw is in the midst of consultation over the detail of the Zero Carbon Bill which will set in law a target of zero carbon emissions by 2050 and set up the commission.

Shaw said he would consult National before he took recommendations on the bill to cabinet in August and before the bill was drafted.

"It is a horrendously complicated issue and it is going to take a few rounds of conversation before we settle on final decisions.

"I think it is pretty unreasonable to ask them to support a piece of legislation that they haven't seen yet and I think that engaging them in the process of drafting increases the chances that they will eventually vote for it.

Bridges, a former Associate Climate Change Minister, sent a letter to Shaw and Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, about the bipartisan approach but in a speech he elaborated on five principles that should guide the country's transition to a low carbon economy and before agriculture was brought into the Emissions Trading Scheme.

Bridges said that among the principles was having a science-based approach, which would treat the short-lived methane differently to the long-lived carbon dioxide.

That is one of the issues on which Shaw is running his consultation but he did not want to offer a view at this stage.

The consultation process involved 14 events including a meeting in the Auckland Town Hall on Friday.

Tonight he is speaking in Gisborne and is spending the afternoon inspecting the storm damage at Tolaga Bay.