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Consumer NZ, Lawyers for Climate Action NZ and the Environmental Law Initiative have gone to the High Court to accuse Z Energy of greenwashing about its attempts to decarbonise.
The energy company reports the second-highest emissions of any New Zealand company, but says it’s trying to diversify away from petroleum. Its petrol, diesel and jet fuel sales are increasingly supplemented by EV charging and, of course, coffees and muffins. […]
And over the past eight years it’s installed public EV chargers at 38 of its 188 Z-branded service stations – a total 107 charging bays. The number of service stations with chargers is still dwarfed by the total 550-plus Z, Caltex and Challenge petrol stations and truck stops that it operates or supplies.
The public chargers have been jointly funded by Z and public money. Z says it’s spent $27.3m on EV charging, in addition to the $4.4m in funding it’s received from the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority.
Iwi Chairs Forum climate co-leader Mike Smith, of Ngapuhi and Ngati Kahu, is already suing Z and other big emitters for the harm that climate change causes to New Zealanders. He’s awaiting a Supreme Court ruling to decide whether it is allowed to proceed. […]
According to regulated disclosures to the Environmental Protection Authority, Z Energy is second on the list of big New Zealand emitters, after Fonterra. Z is closely followed by Mobil and BP. […]
[Chief executive Lindis Jones] argues the hundreds of court cases against corporates, all around the world, are penalising those firms and governments that are most open about their emissions and their work to cut them. That deters other big emitters from stepping up and speaking out.
He calls it greenhushing. […]
According to a report from the London School of Economics Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment, there have been 2341 climate cases filed with the courts around the world. More than half of the decided claims have been successful.
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