PM Jacinda Ardern's challenges other world leaders on climate change

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has challenged other leaders to ensure they had clear goals and actions ready for the upcoming Katowice Climate Change Conference in Poland in December.

Ardern set out New Zealand's climate change credentials at a Climate Week summit in New York, announcing the Government was topping up a fund for climate change in the Pacific by a further $100 million, taking it to $300 million over the next four years.

She also had a message for other leaders about upcoming climate change talks.

"The rules that are agreed must be robust and credible so that the Paris Agreement is effective and enduring. The world can only reach the Paris goals if we have clarity and confidence about each other's commitments and action."

"I refuse to accept that the challenge of climate change is too hard to solve."

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern appears on NBC's Today Show this morning with Hoda Kotb (left) and Savannah Guthrie. Photo / Supplied

As the world leaders are urged to make financial contributions to climate change mitigation and adaptation for developing countries, Ardern announced she was increasing a $200m fund set up in 2015 to $300m for the next four years - an extra $25m a year.

The use of the fund has been questioned by Oxfam and the Greens, who have said some of it is going to economic development projects dressed up as climate change projects.

Ardern - who declared climate change was the "nuclear-free" battle of her generation during last year's election campaign - was applauded when she told the summit about her Government's decision to ban future gas and oil exploration permits from 2020.

That step has prompted controversy in New Zealand - and her speech coincided with news back in New Zealand that officials estimated the cost of that decision to New Zealand to be $8 billion over the next 23 years.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern appears on NBC's Today Show this morning with Hoda Kotb (left) and Savannah Guthrie. Photo / Supplied

It was the first of several climate change related appointments Ardern has while in New York.

Later in the week, Ardern will take part in a dialogue on climate change at the UN, speak at French President Emmanuel Macron's Global Planet Summit and attend the first meeting of the Carbon Neutrality Coalition.

New Zealand is a co-convenor of that group, which was formed in 2017 at a One Planet Summit hosted by Macron to mark the first anniversary of the Paris Agreement on climate change.

It includes 16 countries and 32 cities which are seeking cuts in emissions to meet the targets agreed to in the Paris Agreement.

Ardern said New Zealand was also working on a strategy to ensure countries which lost land to rising sea levels did not also have to face shrinking maritime boundaries under the international law of the sea.

"Our goal is to find a way, as quickly as possible, to provide certainty to vulnerable coastal states that they will not lose access to their marine resources and current entitlements."