New Zealand government sued over ‘inadequate’ plan to reduce emissions

Climate lawyers are taking the New Zealand government to court, alleging its plan to reduce planet-heating pollution contains “glaring holes,” which will have “huge consequences for our country.”

(CNN) — Climate lawyers are taking the New Zealand government to court, alleging its plan to reduce planet-heating pollution contains “glaring holes,” which will have “huge consequences for our country.”

Two groups, Lawyers for Climate Action NZ and the Environmental Law Initiative, argue that the government’s plan to reach net zero before 2050 is “neither credible nor capable” of reducing emissions.

The groups, which represent about 300 lawyers, filed for judicial review in the Wellington High Court on Tuesday against New Zealand’s Minister for Climate Change, Simon Watts.

In the claim, they argue that, contrary to New Zealand law, the right-leaning government has slashed dozens of climate policies without consulting the public, and is relying on “high-risk” strategies such as tree planting to offset the country’s emissions.

“We’re filing this case because it’s critical our government is held to account,” Lawyers for Climate Action NZ said in a statement.

“The world’s leading scientists have made clear that this is the critical decade for climate action - but the NZ government has been quietly cutting climate policies, and relying on planting pine trees as an alternative,” the statement said.

In a statement to CNN, a spokesperson for Watts said the minister was “aware” of the legal proceedings.

“As this matter is now before the courts, the Minister will not be commenting on the judicial review,” the spokesperson said.

The government released its second emissions reduction plan in December, which sets out a “a technology-led approach” to reducing emissions while growing the country’s economy.

A major part of the plan is investment in carbon capture and storage, afforestation and gas capture from organic waste, management and landfill. In April, the government projected that 700,000 hectares of land will be converted into forest by 2050.

At the time, Watts said New Zealand “remained committed to the global goal of limiting warming to 1.5 degrees” and that the government was on track to meet its emissions budgets up until 2030.

Two major claims

With just 5 million people, New Zealand is a small player when it comes to global carbon emissions.

But like many other island nations, the country is feeling the impacts of the climate crisis, which is eroding its shores, destroying its biodiversity, fueling extreme weather and threatening to displace entire communities.

And New Zealand’s Climate Change Commission has warned of an “urgent need” to strengthen the country’s climate policies.

Central to the legal challenge are two claims. The first is that the right-leaning government, which took office in November 2023, threw out 35 climate policies, including a clean car discount and a fund for investing in decarbonizing industries, without proper public consultation.

The second claim is that the government is relying too heavily on offsetting emissions though forestry or controversial and expensive methods such as carbon capture and storage, which has yet to be proven at scale.

While climate scientists generally agree that planting trees and restoring forests to absorb carbon dioxide is needed to meet climate obligations, many experts warn that tree planting is not a quick or complete fix and won’t go far enough to reduce the needed emissions.

“This will be one of the first legal cases in the world challenging a government’s pursuit of a climate strategy that relies so heavily on offsetting rather than emissions reductions at source,” the Environmental Law Initiative said in a statement.

“As it stands, the Government’s emissions reduction plan will carry huge consequences for our country,” it added.

New Zealand’s Green Party supports the litigation, saying the government’s current climate plan is “not worth the paper it is written on.”

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