The National Party Leader does not think taxpayers should subsidise the cost of big companies reducing their emissions.
Christopher Luxon speaking to media at Parliament Photo: RNZ / Angus Dreaver
Christopher Luxon says corporates do not need to the help and should get on with the job themselves.
The government is spending $650m over four years, as part of its Emissions Reduction Plan, on moving industries away from using fossil fuels.
Some of that money will be spent on banning new low and medium-temperature coal boilers, and phase out existing ones, by 2037.
The government was sending businesses the wrong message, Luxon said.
"The message to corporates is very clear, get on and get removing emissions right now. They've got the financial capability to do so, they don't need to be waiting around wondering whether the government's going to give them more subsidies."
There was no need for corporate welfare because the Emissions Trading Scheme existed, he said.
"I think we have a very good system called the ETS scheme that makes it really clear that, you know, the price of carbon goes up and you have to then talk about carbon removal for corporates, and every good corporate, every good board will be thinking very deeply about that. So I think the ETS scheme does a lot of the heavy lifting, and we can make that work very well."
The National Party supported the first three emission budgets, which set caps for New Zealand's greenhouse gas emissions for the next 15 years.
When announcing that support, Luxon said his party was committed to the budgets but might have a different approach on how to meet them.
When asked what he supported in the Emissions Reduction Plan, Luxon said widening parts of the ETS, as well as investment and research into agriculture.
"We've got a real challenge with agriculture and the world has a problem with agricultural emissions, because it is no obvious technology pathway or roadmap for us to remove them."