While critics lash Chris Luxon's short and medium-term plans to reduce Kiwi emissions, the National party leader has affirmed his support for net zero.
"I don't have any intention whatsoever of coming off the 2050 target," he told Newstalk ZB.
"We are going to get to net zero in 2050, no doubt about that."
Mr Luxon's emissions neutrality stand makes him an outlier on the right of politics, both at home and internationally.
He is the only leader of an established right-of-centre party in the Anglosphere to stay true to net zero.
In Australia, the Liberals, Nationals and One Nation have abandoned the goal.
In the UK, the Conservatives have also reversed course, following the lead of upstart force Reform.
Donald Trump's Republicans have made clear their disdain for renewables, twice pulling the US out of the Paris Agreement, while in Canada the Conservatives refer to the 2050 goal as "radical net zero ideology".
Even in New Zealand, Mr Luxon is isolated. His two coalition partners - the populist NZ First party, led by veteran Winston Peters, and the libertarian ACT party - have both withdrawn support for net zero.
ACT goes even further, calling for New Zealand to withdraw from the Paris Agreement.
Mr Luxon argues that axing net zero or leaving the Paris Agreement would hurt Kiwi exporters.
"We'd lose a huge amount, we'd get damaged badly from competitor countries and from big, large multinationals," he said.
He is betting the farm that technological advancements can collapse New Zealand's emissions, half of which come from agriculture.
"When you look at the innovation pipeline, and genuinely, I've looked at this really closely ... we have some incredible inventions and technologies coming," he said.
"We've put $450 million into this agri-zero stuff and really, we just need one of those things to come off and we can increase production and productivity of the farming sector and also meet our emissions targets."
Greens co-leader Chloe Swarbrick is incredulous at the "head in the sand" approach.
"Christopher Luxon's government came to office and decided to pour oil, coal and gas on the climate crisis fire," she said.
The Greens, which held the climate portfolio for the six years of Jacinda Ardern's Labour-led government, are steaming at the unravelling of the political consensus from that era.
Earlier in the term, Mr Luxon's coalition axed a ban on oil and gas exploration, a major decarbonisation fund, a low emission car rebate, light rail projects and plans to price agricultural emissions.
This year it unveiled a 2035 emissions target of one per cent from 2030 levels, and cut climate financing for the Pacific.
"They're shredding the climate consensus that they signed up to when they were in opposition," Ms Swarbrick said.
"They supported the cross-partisan Zero Carbon Act, and now in government, they are stripping the climate change commission of its powers."
The shift means that for the first time in many years, climate change is likely to be one of the top-order issues in next year's election campaign.
Polling shows Mr Luxon to be a historically unpopular prime minister, with the contest for a parliamentary majority between the right bloc and the left bloc on a knife's edge.
Asked whether that could advantage the Greens next year, Ms Swarbrick deadpanned her response.
"I don't think anybody wins when the planet burns," she said.
