NZ’s Supreme Court Allows Groundbreaking Climate Change Case to Go Ahead

The Supreme Court’s decision has attracted local and international attention as one that ’may open a new avenue in climate law.’
NZ’s Supreme Court Allows Groundbreaking Climate Change Case to Go Ahead
Hundreds of climate protesters walk from Times Square to New York Governor Kathy Hochul’s office to demand more action against climate change in New York City on Nov. 13, 2021. Spencer Platt/Getty Images
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A Māori elder and climate change spokesperson for the Iwi Chairs Forum—a group of New Zealand tribal leaders—has won the right to sue some of New Zealand’s largest corporate greenhouse gas emitters.

Mike Smith seeks to establish civil (tort) liability for those emitters’ contributions to climate change, arguing that they have negatively impacted his family’s and tribe’s land, water, and cultural values.

Rex Widerstrom
Rex Widerstrom
Author
Rex Widerstrom is a New Zealand-based reporter with over 40 years of experience in media, including radio and print. He is currently a presenter for Hutt Radio.
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