WELLINGTON, July 12 (Xinhua) -- New Zealand Minister for Climate Change James Shaw on Thursday strongly welcomed the commitment by the new Climate Leaders Coalition of 60 businesses to cutting their greenhouse gas emissions and leading the way to the low-carbon economy.

These 60 companies, from Z Energy, to Spark, Vodafone, Air New Zealand, and Contact Energy, make up nearly half of the country's total greenhouse gas emissions when their supply chains are included, Shaw said in a statement.

"To have them formally join the challenge to tackle climate change and reduce their emissions is a huge boost towards our goal of net zero emissions by 2050," Shaw said.

The fact that their commitment also extends to working with their suppliers to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions as well shows these companies are serious about joining the collective responsibility for reducing New Zealand's climate pollution, the minister said.

These demonstrations of leadership from the private sector show that New Zealand is ready to take on the challenge of tackling climate change and hungry to seize on the opportunity to upgrade the economy, "not just so that it's 'clean and green' but also more productive, higher value and better paid," he added.