James Shaw leaves Parliament with a wager

“Last one to 150 million tonnes buys the drinks”.

That was departing Green MP James Shaw’s challenge to serving Climate Change Minister, Simon Watts, in his valedictory speech on Wednesday night. 

Shaw has set himself the goal of reducing or removing 150 million tonnes of climate pollution from global emissions by 2030 through his future work in the private sector. 

It is equal to New Zealand’s non-binding commitment under the Paris Climate Agreement, which the Coalition has promised to achieve.

Shaw was essentially saying he would attempt to deliver an entire country’s worth of emissions reductions almost single-handedly (politicians are rarely short of ego).

And if he can do it, so can the Government.

Before the election, Shaw took a paper to Cabinet which said NZ would have to spend a significant sum of money on offshore carbon credits to meet its 2030 target.

The question is less about whether NZ hits the 2030 target and more about how much of it can be done domestically, versus internationally.

But Shaw had other challenges. Prime Minister Christopher Luxon was told not to let his ministers unwind the National Policy Statement on Indigenous Biodiversity. 

Finance Minister Nicola Willis was asked to extend some version of the Jobs for Nature project which hired people in remote regions to improve the condition of rivers, forests, and bushes. 

There was also a serve to his own party, and the entire house, about avoiding partisanship. 

He acknowledged Andrew Morrison, the former President of Beef & Lamb, who was beaten in an election by a more strident candidate who had been endorsed by Groundswell. 

“[Morrison] got rolled from his job the same year I was also briefly rolled from mine, and for much the same reason,” Shaw said. 

“The partisans in our tribes thought each of us had sold out to the other”. 

It is true that Shaw was an unusual fit for the Green Party. His maiden speech quoted Margaret Thatcher and his valedictory Henry Ford. 

Chlöe Swarbrick, seated beside him in the House, rubbed her brow theatrically as he referenced these two heroes of capitalism and conservatism.

The third term MP was recruited by Shaw to join the party in 2017 and was shoulder-tapped to take over his job after the 2023 election. “Tag you’re it,” he allegedly told her.

Swarbrick later said, at a separate event, she had often been seen as someone “made in his mould” when in reality she was just as much a “thorn in his side”.

The new co-leader has been pitched as a bridge between Shaw-style consensus building and the more radical activism of the party membership.

Still, it can be hard to imagine some members of the party finding common ground with conservative politicians the way Shaw managed. 

Barely two hours after the valedictory speech, Green MP Julie Anne Genter lost her temper with National’s Matt Doocey and crossed the debating chamber to yell at him.

It was a stark contrast to Shaw’s appeal for bipartisan cooperation and warm shout-outs to a trio of conservative politicians who had helped NZ achieve Green goals. Todd Muller, Nick Smith, and even Luxon were personally thanked for their contribution to the progress made so far.

“I clearly have a fatal attraction for bald Tories,” Shaw quipped. 

In the case of Muller, NZ would not have an “enduring Zero Carbon Act or a Climate Change Commission without him”.

Politicians who were willing to take positions outside of entrenched debates and build alliances across the house could “radically shift the political centre” in their direction. 

“Political tribalism is, I believe, the single greatest barrier to creating enduring solutions to the great challenges of our time,” he said.

New gigs 

James Shaw’s new job will be at Kiwi investment firm Morrison, which has grown to be an infrastructure giant and has built large amounts of renewable energy abroad. 

The firm manages over $38 billion in assets, on behalf of institutional investors and sovereign wealth funds such as the NZ Super Fund, and has a reputation for delivering strong returns. 

It is best known for its listed infrastructure fund, Infratil, which owns Wellington Airport and One New Zealand — alongside many overseas assets. 

Paul Newfield, chief executive of Morrison, said Shaw's global networks and geopolitical insights would provide value for the firm's investor clients. 

Morrison has become particularly focused on building renewable energy and has made massive investments in the United States, Europe, and South East Asia.

Leaders at the firm reportedly reached out to Shaw about the possibility of a job immediately after the election, well before he officially announced plans to step down.  

It is with Morrison that the former Climate Change Minister will work to achieve that 150m tonnes of carbon reduction by 2030 goal. 

In addition, he will sit on the boards of the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) New Zealand and the Sustainability Advisory Panel of Air New Zealand — both are very part-time gigs.

Shaw will also spend one day a week working at a newly formed investment firm called Greenbridge Capital Management. It was founded by Craig Weise, the former chief executive of the New Zealand Green Investment Fund which Shaw helped to establish in 2018, and provides institutions with climate-positive investment options.