Simon says "Let's talk climate change." And we should.

New Zealand is in the middle of one of the most important government consultations ever: the one to help shape the pivotal and far-reaching “Zero Carbon Bill”.

And the consultation for that - the Ministry for the Environment’s “Our Climate Your Say” campaign - follows hard on the heels of the Productivity Commission’s consultation on transitioning to a low-emissions economy.

It’s notable that the Productivity Commission process was set in train by the last National-led government, the terms of reference have been intensified across the board by a Green/Labour directive, and National leader Simon Bridges has now offered cooperation towards enduring cross-party climate change legislation.

“Climate change is too big for partisan politics."

This is truly a milestone moment, signalling a crucial move away from the adversarial approach that has historically crippled New Zealand’s climate change responses. When welcoming Simon Bridge’s announcement, Climate Change Minister James Shaw encapsulated the towering, yet simple, truth embedded in this sea-change: “Climate change is too big for partisan politics."

We mustn't be deceived by the almost-self-evident simplicity of Shaw’s statement, for it is worthy of deeper consideration. Climate change is not only far too big for partisan politics, but also transcends many other familiar forms of protectionism, such as

• Facets of intellectual property ( after all, climate change is why Elon Musk released the patents on Tesla cars, and SolarCity made their photovoltaic IP available to India).
• Publicly funded research organisations keeping the wraps on research findings (it’s surprising how many high-level conferences and summits don’t release papers).
• Smoke screens by sectorial interests. In other arenas we might think tobacco, asbestos or pharmaceuticals. On climate change, let’s hope the likes of Federated Farmers and environmental campaigners will emerge from their respective bunkers, give each other a nod, and accept that climate change is also bigger than them - and will be better resolved if they treat each other with respect.

And let’s not see ourselves individually as somehow outside the “let’s talk climate change” mix. Together we’re heading into an incredible era with fascinating and formidable problems that present fascinating and formidable challenges.

In that context, is it that hard to imagine sitting with friends over a coffee and considering where there’s a patch of neglected land we could plant a few trees, or chatting about the best way to join the trend to electric vehicles, or even debating just how far ahead we’d really like our councils to plan our cities (50 years? 100? 200?...).

And who knows – we might even join those making submissions to Government! More on that in the next post.