Mr Parker was addressing the annual Minerals Forum, hosted in Dunedin this year, to a backdrop of more than 100 protesters outside the town hall yesterday.
Mr Parker put the industry on notice, highlighting the zero carbon economy target range may be 2050-2100, but he wanted New Zealand's change completed by 2050.
He said of climate change it was not only the people of South Dunedin "on the move'', because of rising seas, but the potential displacement of 30million Bangladeshi people.
"I'm not a climate change denier, but a denier of the need to use fossil fuels beyond 2050,'' he told about 300 delegates.
He said the mining sector in New Zealand had high standards, which could in turn make the country ``an example of sustainable production'' by the industry.
He noted there had been funding from the Provincial Growth Fund to look into the infrastructure for hydrogen fuel cell technology, and added lithium studies and nickel cobalt to the list of minerals needed in the future for new batteries and solar energy developments.
"Fossil fuels do need to be phased out, but the world will need many more minerals, probably forever,'' Mr Parker said.
He said he was criticised a decade ago for wanting the proportion of electricity generated from renewables to rise from the then 64% to 90%. It now stood at about 85% renewable.
"We're set to achieve that 90% target, then [move] to 100%,'' he said.
"I'm confident New Zealand will be carbon neutral by 2050 ... and a wealthier country as a consequence,'' he said.
