New Zealand Supreme Court Allows Climate Change Action To Proceed

• Published date: 28 March 2024
• Subject Matter: Environment, Energy and Natural Resources, Energy Law, Climate Change
• Law Firm: Fasken
• Author: Ms Kimberly Potter and Kerry Kaukinen

In the recent case Smith v. Fonterra, ¹ the Supreme Court of New Zealand allowed an appeal in a private law climate change action, permitting the appellant's tort claims to proceed and rejecting the respondent corporations' arguments that the causes of action were doomed to fail.

This is an important case for those interested in climate change litigation. New Zealand's top court found that the New Zealand common law may indeed be flexible enough to accommodate new forms of claims targeted at private entities alleged to be contributing to the complex issue of climate change. Whether these causes of action will succeed at trial is not yet known, but in Smith, the Supreme Court was not willing to strike them at a preliminary stage.

This result is likely to embolden climate activists worldwide in pursuing new and creative forms of private law relief, or in arguing that existing private law causes of action can be repurposed to respond to climate change.

In Smith, the plaintiff, Michael John Smith, a Māori elder and climate change spokesperson for a national forum of tribal leaders...