The future of mining as we know it in Aotearoa hangs in the balance as the Government consults on key legislation.
As it stands, the Crown Minerals Act aims to promote the exploration and mining of Crown-owned minerals.
But officials hope changing the word "promote" to "manage" could help achieve climate gains.
In a statement to AM, Energy and Resources Minister Megan Woods said New Zealand's laws "must be consistent with our climate change commitments".
"The National Government added the legislative requirement to promote mining activities in 2013 but this is now out of step with the direction the world is going, and we believe this is no longer fit for purpose," Dr Woods said.
According to the mining industry, the move was a misstep.
"It may sound like a word it is a word with quite [a] significant meaning at the moment," said Josie Vidal, the chief executive of Straterra - which represents New Zealand's mining sector.
"Everything we use, and everything we want to use as we go to this full-electric future, need mining," she told AM.
Greenpeace senior campaigner Steve Abel agreed some mining was still needed but "most of the mining that we're talking about we don't need to do".
"Importantly, the key thing we need to stop promoting - and this is what the Government's changing the law for - is oil, gas and coal mining," he said. "The International Agency for Energy - which is a conservative agency - says, 'We don't need to be issuing any new mining permits for oil, gas and coal from 2021,'" Abel said.
The proposed changes to the Crown Minerals Act come after countries at the COP27 climate summit, including New Zealand, were last week unsuccessful in reaching a consensus on phasing out fossil fuels.
In 2018, the Labour-led Government said it would no longer issue permits for oil and gas exploration - but there have still been instances of companies being allowed to search for it off the Taranaki coast.
National Party leader Christopher Luxon has said his party would scrap the oil and gas exploration ban.
According to a report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change earlier this year, the world needed to use about 95 percent less coal, 60 percent less oil and 45 percent less gas to achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2050 and to hold global warming to within 1.5C.
Woods acknowledged fossil fuels continued "to play an important role in keeping the lights on today, we know the future will look different and the types of resources needed will change over time".
Changes to the Crown Minerals Act would give the sector "certainty about the future of fossil fuels and of minerals decision making", she said.
