Climate change committee members announced

The government's Climate Change Commission has come one step closer with an expert committee appointed to begin the groundwork.

The interim committee will begin investigating how New Zealand will transition to a net zero emissions economy by 2050 and consider other matters such as how agriculture can be brought in to the Emissions Trading Scheme.

The Commission will be set up next year.

Climate Change Minister James Shaw said New Zealand needed to start planning now for the move to 100 percent renewable electricity generation by 2035.

"If we want to help lead the world towards meeting the goals of the Paris Agreement, we must create a moral mandate underpinned by decisive action at home to reduce our own emissions.

"Setting up the Interim Climate Change Committee is a great step in that direction," said Mr Shaw.

The chair of the committee is David Prentice, who was most recently the CEO of the infrastructure firm Opus International Consultants.

The deputy chair is Lisa Tumahai the Kaiwhakahaere of Te Rūnanga o Ngāi Tahu.

Mr Shaw said the committee had two primary questions to look at.

"Under what circumstances agriculture might join the emissions trading scheme? Remember it's always been a presumption, right back to the 2002 Act, that at some point agriculture would come into the emissions trading scheme.

"The other is how we might achieve the government's target of getting to 100 percent renewable electricity generation by the year 2035."

The other committee members are:

• Dr Harry Clark, a New Zealand expert on agricultural greenhouse gas research
• Dr Keith Turner, former CEO of Meridian and professional director
• Dr Jan Wright, former Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment
• Dr Suzi Kerr, an internationally renowned expert in the economics of climate change policy and emissions trading