The Green Party wants New Zealand to be carbon neutral by 2050, co-leader James Shaw announced to the party membership at their annual conference in Auckland.

The Greens will introduce a Green Infrastructure Fund, which Shaw calls the Kiwibank of a clean economy, in the sense that it will attract private funding to channel towards technology and infrastructure projects.

Shaw said it will fund projects like clean energy, efficient buildings, sustainable agriculture, and waste reduction that will create jobs and increase economic prosperity, while reducing our country’s contribution to climate change.

He expects the fund to cost $10 million to establish, plus $100 million over the next three years, which will be paid for in royalties from oil drilling, which they plan to raise to 70 percent, in line with international standards.

"The fund will be one of my personal economic development goals up and running within the first twelve months of the formation of the new government on September the twenty-fourth," he said.

The fund will have a minimum target rate of return of 7 per cent, an annual emissions reduction goal of one million tonnes of CO2, and generate thousands of new jobs.

The meeting was also addressed by Zac Exley, a political consultant to Bernie Sanders' campaign for the Democratic nomination in the United States last year, speaking via video link.

Exley said he watches Green campaigns unfold all over the world, but says New Zealand's is the coolest and he'd always dreamed of working on one like it.

"I really hope that it would lead some day to me being able to work on a truly revolutionary campaign and eventually that day came with Bernie Sanders."

Prior to the AGM, James Shaw was talking up the surge of young candidates in the party, including former Auckland mayoral candidate Chloe Swarbrick, Maori caucus member Jack McDonald, and television host Hayley Holt.

Co-leader Metiria Turei will give her policy speech on Sunday.