James Shaw says the Zero Carbon Bill will be too much for some and too little for others, but they have to do more than simply plant trees.
Details of the Government's long-awaited climate change laws were unveiled today, setting out a 30-year plan to help limit global warming to no more than 1.5 degrees Celsius.
Farmers will be happy methane - the gas mainly produced by agriculture - is exempt from a target of reducing all greenhouse gas emissions to net zero by 2050.
The methane target is 10 percent reduction by 2030.
The Bill will also establish the independent Climate Change Commission, set five-yearly emissions budgets as stepping stones, and require the Government to help combat growing threats like flooding and fires.
The Climate Change Minister told Kerre McIvor the bill is based on scientific research from New Zealand and overseas.
"The science about what it's going to take for us across the whole economy, not just farmers, to live within 1.5 degrees of global warming."
Shaw says that there are some figures that don't have a New Zealand context, such as around biological methane emissions.
The Climate Change Commission will now have to give the Government a definitive answer by 2024 on that and other matters.
"There is a range of uncertainty, and we want to give people more predictability and certainty than that."
He says that every part of society and the economy has to work together to lower emissions and improve our climate.
Shaw says that there are some areas around energy, such as more solar and wind, where we are falling behind and we can improve.
When it comes to other countries and their emissions, Shaw says that they have a commitment to help countries that are lesser off through this transition.
"We do have a historic responsibility there. Not every country in the world is pulling their weight, but the momentum is building, and I think before too long the countries that are pulling their weight are going to look at those that aren't and ask why."

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