The new Climate Change Commissioner, former Reserve Bank Chair Dr Rod Carr, has the potential to drastically reshape greenhouse-gas emitting industries in New Zealand - if the Government allows it.
The new Climate Change Commission will have the role of advising the Government and recommending carbon limits - just how much greenhouse gas can be pumped into the atmosphere.
"We've just had the next bunch of grandchildren... they are going to live with the consequences of these choices," the former University of Canterbury vice-chancellor told Newshub.
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"That's a pretty compelling burden to carry, and we all carry it together."
Dr Carr said it is "pretty clear that we have benefited enormously from harnessing fossil fuels to create an industrial society, which is unsustainable".
The Government's progress on climate change has been slow. The Zero Carbon Bill is not expected to pass until the end of the year, and activists are calling for a climate emergency to be declared.
They've got global momentum. Swedish teenage climate activist Greta Thunberg joined marchers in South Dakota on Tuesday, and in London Extinction Rebellion protesters chained themselves to cars.
But Dr Carr is not ready to make that "emergency" call just yet, telling Newshub: "The first thing we have to do is set up the evidence-based budgets."
The Greens attempted and failed to get Parliament to declare an emergency in May, and have no immediate plans to try again.
The Government also wants farmers to start paying for some of their emissions. It's consulting on how that would work, including the possibility of having producers like Fonterra enter the emissions trading scheme (ETS) before farmers pay at an individual level.
Dr Carr says bringing farmers into the ETS before 2025 would need to be weighed up against the cost to the industry.
"There's no point in imposing a change which alienates those who must make the change."
The Climate Change Commission will make decisions that could dramatically reshape every greenhouse gas emitting industry in New Zealand, but it will only be as powerful as the Government allows it to be. Parliament will still have the say whether to act on its recommendations.
"Of course Parliament remains sovereign," Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said. "We've set up the independent Climate Commission to give us advice."
Opposition leader Simon Bridges said the idea of an independent Climate Commission is something National has "been on the record as supporting".
The UK has had a Climate Commission for 10 years now.
Newshub.
