Greenpeace spokesperson Amanda Larsson said the Greens’ had put forward a really good proposal and hoped the Government would get on board with it.
“What we have in front of us is a once in a lifetime opportunity where we have billions of dollars on the table for economic stimulus. With that stimulus, we have a choice.
"We can either pump it into industries that will help ecologically and stop the worst impacts of climate change or we can choose to pump it into industries that were doing harm before COVID-19 happened,” said Larsson.
Larsson said the next generation would be burdened with the debt from the pandemic so they should not also be burdened with climate change.
Spokesperson for Forest and Bird Geoff Keey said the organisation supported the idea as a lot of conservation jobs could be scaled up straight away.
“When we put money into conservation it works, we know it gets results, so it is money well spent,” said Keey.
It would be important to get educators like polytechnics involved with the policy, he said, and that went over and above current commitment from Central and local Government.
The Government will make major decisions on how to stimulate the economy when the budget is released in May.