More than 150 people attended a consultation meeting about the Bill with Climate Change Minister James Shaw at Forsyth Barr Stadium last night.
Mr Shaw said it was more people than attended his Auckland meeting recently.
Mr Shaw said the Bill would set in law a ''net zero'' target for 2050, which meant New Zealand would need to reduce emissions as much as possible, and offset any remaining emissions through planting forests.
''The whole point of this Zero Carbon Bill is to create certainty over the course of the next 30 years, so that people know where we're going and what the stepping stones are to getting there.''
He said a politically independent climate change commission would be created to help guide the way to the goal.
''These public consultations are really to test the ideas and to get a sense of people's preferences ... We're trying to get a steer to where people's thinking is at.
''What I've noticed [from previous meetings] is because the Bill is a really high-level piece of overarching legislation, people need to talk about the specifics to get comfortable with the Bill - like what are we doing about electric vehicles, what happens to the dairy sector, how methane is different from carbon dioxide, what does it mean in terms of low-income households.''
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Carbon dioxide is currently at 400 ppm and some are getting all wound up. During the Jurassic, Triassic and Cumbrian periods- carbon was 6000-12,000 ppm with lush green vegetation. So carbon is not the problem- pollution is, along with politicians who want to tax us for their pet projects.