Joint media release: Strengthening climate collaboration across the Tasman

The Hon Dr Jim Chalmers MP, Treasurer

The Hon Chris Bowen MP, Minister for Climate Change and Energy

Australia and New Zealand will work closely together to unlock the vast economic opportunities on offer from the transformation to cleaner and cheaper energy in areas such as low‑carbon liquid fuels, transport and sustainable finance.

Today we hosted New Zealand Finance Minister Nicola Willis and Climate Change Minister Simon Watts at the Australia‑New Zealand 2+2 Climate and Finance Dialogue, held for the first time in Brisbane.

This is all about working with our partners across the Tasman to maximise the economic and industrial benefits of the shift to net zero and strengthen green trade and supply chain security in our region.

We agreed to deepen our work on streamlining trade of key low‑emissions products, unpicking the red tape holding back the net zero transformation and finding new ways to help industry decarbonise.

A big focus of our discussions today was on low‑carbon liquid fuel production in our region, and ensuring we have strong supply chains for the more sustainable fuels that can power our trucks, cargo ships and planes into the future.

We have agreed to work more closely with the aviation, maritime and agricultural industries to help them decarbonise, as well as specific work to improve the supply chain security of the sustainable fuels these industries will rely on more and more.

Taking action on climate change will help to secure the future of all Indo‑Pacific nations in a changing global economic and strategic landscape, as the world undergoes the biggest transformation since the industrial revolution.

In a joint statement today, we agreed to:

• Investigate the conditions required to develop a regional sustainable aviation fuel industry;
• Invite New Zealand aviation companies and representatives to join Australia’s Jet Zero Council, to strengthen trans‑Tasman expert advice on decarbonising aviation;
• Review the regulatory barriers holding back the net zero transformation across our two economies;
• Meet with maritime industry stakeholders to discuss how government and industry can work together to develop trans‑Tasman green shipping lanes;
• Work with industry on decarbonisation, including via New Zealand joining the Climate Club intergovernmental forum;
• Engage collaboratively in the development of a Guarantee of Origin scheme to promote greater trade in low‑emissions products;
• Align work across our two economies on sustainable finance, including how green investment products are labelled;
• Increase collaboration to help deliver the Paris Agreement, including through sharing lessons learnt from developing Net Zero Plans; and
• Invest in better emissions monitoring and new technologies in the agricultural sector to help reduce emissions in the long term.

The full joint statement is available on the Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water website.

Deeper collaboration between our countries will help us grab the vast industrial and economic opportunities from the world’s shift to net zero.