The Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment, Simon Upton, has continued a call for an independent climate commissioner and Zero Carbon Act.
Simon Upton, who took over from Jan Wright last year, says the UK was devising the best way to combat climate change and create policy.
"While there was no shortage of good ideas to choose from, the UK's approach stood out as being the one that was most likely to lock-in a stable, long-term path to lower emissions," Mr Upton said on Wednesday at the release of his report, A Zero Carbon Act for New New Zealand.
He said while there are constitutional differences between the two countries, there is no reason an independent climate commission and a Zero Carbon Act cannot work here.
Mr Upton believed more detailed advice was necessary to enact law designed to underwrite policy consistent to withstand multiple electoral cycles.
Carbon budgets needed to be set up looking 15 years into the future in order to provide investors, businesses and individuals with a predictable future emissions pathway, he said.
"Internationally, there is a growing momentum to deal with climate change in a structured way that provides certainty for businesses and investors - it is high time New Zealand took the same approach.
"We have to break out of the stop-go, on-again, off-again approach to tackling such a pressing long term problem."
A Zero Carbon Act would not replace the Emissions Trading Scheme, Mr Upton said.
He said different targets should be set for greenhouse gas emissions.
The Insurance Council, however, has criticised Mr Upton's report, saying "climate change adaptation has once again taken a back to seat to carbon budgets", and more resources needed to be put towards identifying and reducing risks to people and property.
"No matter how successful New Zealand is in achieving greenhouse gas reduction targets, we will still have to deal with the increasing frequency and severity of extreme weather events," the council's chief executive, Tim Grafton, says.
Last year, extreme weather events caused more than 25,000 claims from homes and businesses at a total cost of over $240 million in insured losses.
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