National leader Simon Bridges has offered bipartisan support to the Government on climate change.

Bridges wrote to the prime minister on Friday saying he wants to help find cross-party support for a non-political Climate Change Commission.

"In order to drive long-lasting change, broad and enduring political support is needed for New Zealand's climate change framework - on the institutional arrangements we put in place," Bridges wrote.

SCOTT HAMMOND/STUFF National leader Simon Bridges: "In order to drive long-lasting change, broad and enduring political support is needed for New Zealand's climate change framework - on the institutional arrangements we put in place."

"I am confident that we can work constructively together to establish an enduring non-political framework for future governments and parliaments when considering climate change issues."

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Climate Change Minister James Shaw has already begun work designing a Zero Carbon Act and a new independent Climate Change Commission, which would likely offer recommendations around carbon budgets and other climate policy to future Governments.

This follows a model recommended by former Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment Jan Wright, which National was cool on at the time.

These carbon budgets would be used to bring down our greenhouse gases - not just carbon dioxide but also methane, which is more damaging than carbon.

Greenhouse gases are the primary cause of human-influenced climate change, which is likely to cause drastic damage to food production, coastlines, and weather in coming decades.

Shaw welcomed the news on Friday, saying "climate change is too big for partisan politics."

"This legislation has got to survive multiple changes in Government," Shaw said.

If National were offering to help craft the Zero Carbon Act that increased the chances they would support it when it came to a vote.

Bridges announced the shift in a speech to Fieldays.

"I've charged our environmental MPs, led by Scott Simpson, Todd Muller, Sarah Dowie and Erica Stanford with the task of modernising our approach to environmental issues. To run a ruler over our policies. To ask the questions and to push us harder," Bridges said.

"We need to do more to reduce emissions further. I know that, and every farmer I talk to knows that too."

"Despite our small individual profile of one fifth of one per cent of global emissions, our size does not abdicate us from our responsibility."

Bridges did have reservations about the Government's approach however, and stopped short of endorsing any measure to bring agricultural emissions into the Emissions Trading Scheme any time soon.

"Moving ahead of other countries risks pushing industries from New Zealand to overseas - meaning we simply export emissions offshore rather than driving global change," Bridges said.

"That's exactly what we've seen with the Government's oil and gas decision - ending natural gas exploration here will simply result in more coal being burnt in China, actually increasing global emissions."

"National want to see sensible, practical solutions, not extreme policies that would damage the economy and unnecessarily drive up costs for Kiwi households."

The National Party opposed the initial Emissions Trading Scheme in 2008, but then-climate change spokesman Nick Smith complained then that Labour had not been open to a bipartisan approach.

An earlier attempt at taxing agricultural emissions, which make up 45 per cent of emissions in New Zealand, was described as "fart tax" by National and killed before it passed.

In government, National amended the Emissions Trading Scheme to remove agricultural emissions from the scheme. However, it kept the law alive and signed up to the Paris climate agreement target, which aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to 50 per cent below 1950 levels by 2050.