New Zealand may have to pay out billions of dollars to meet our carbon slashing target.

The Government raised New Zealand's 2030 Paris Agreement carbon-slashing target and reaching that target would require paying other countries to slash emissions on New Zealand's behalf.

Treasury estimates this will cost $12.8 billion by the end of the decade.

Dave Frame, Director of the NZ Climate Change Research Institute says that it would be wiser to finance mitigating the damage on our shores instead.

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