Labour has opened up a new front in its struggling campaign for re-election in New Zealand, releasing a climate manifesto to reinforce its green credentials.
The latest poll has Labour heading towards opposition, with 26.5 per cent of voter support compared with 39 per cent for the centre-right National.
The Newshub-Reid Research poll has the Greens surging to 14.2 per cent, which would see the left-wingers double their MPs in the party's best-ever result.
In part, the Greens' success is an endorsement of their co-leader James Shaw's handling of the climate change portfolio, given to the party by Labour.
Greenhouse gas emissions have dropped in NZ for three consecutive years since a recent peak in 2019.
Labour's new pledges include topping up a green investment fund to $NZ1 billion ($A920 million), a cap on forestry, and creating a Minister for Just Transitions.
Prime Minister Chris Hipkins said the pledges would "support New Zealanders with the challenge that climate change is going to pose".
"We're going to have a whole lot of jobs that become redundant because of climate change," he said.
"We have to transition those people into new jobs and we're going to have areas of the community where people need to relocate."
The broad manifesto stands in contrast to National's offering, which so far includes two policies that will curb emissions.
The party has pledged to price agricultural emissions - but more slowly than the current plan - and to build a vast national electric vehicle charging network while scrapping a popular rebate for electric cars.
"Putting more electric vehicle chargers out there doesn't reduce emissions if you cut the policy which is actually resulting in people switching to more fuel efficient vehicles," Mr Hipkins said.
National will also reverse a ban on oil and gas exploration put in place by Jacinda Ardern's government.
However, it supports New Zealand's 2030 emission target and 2050 net zero goals and says it will keep the emissions-cutting infrastructure Ms Ardern and Mr Shaw built.
A tripartisan consensus in 2019 resulted in the passing of the Zero Carbon Act, which includes regular "emission budgets" that must be met, and an independent climate change commission.
The right-wing ACT party has pledged to scrap the body.
National climate spokesman Simon Watts told AAP it was a "bottom line commitment" for the party - one it would "absolutely" not give ground on during government negotiations.
"National committed and supported that legislation," he told AAP.
"One of the uniquenesses and the strengths of New Zealand is that we have a bipartisan view around the direction of travel and the targets that we need to meet."
Mr Shaw said National deserved credit for its commitments to targets and emissions budgets, but was yet to unveil a plan on how to get there.
"They're gaslighting us, with an emphasis on the gas," he told AAP.
"They want to reopen fossil fuel exploration, which is bonkers in a climate crisis.
"They want to defund the entire government climate change work program in order to fund their tax cuts and if you defund that work program, the whole emissions reduction plan grinds to a halt."
Greenpeace Aotearoa welcomed Labour's manifesto but warned it did not make enough progress on a key issue - reducing agricultural emissions.
"We can't avert the climate crisis if political leaders continue to ignore the cow in the room," spokeswoman Christine Rose said.
"The Labour Party climate manifesto is certainly better than a policy of reversing important climate wins, which is what we are seeing from the National Party so far.
"But what's needed to address this existential climate crisis is bold leadership - and Labour hasn't delivered that today."
