The man who committed his own climate treason by cutting down trees on One Tree Hill goes to court…
Iwi leader Mike Smith has won the right to sue seven big polluters for their role in causing climate change, in a Supreme Court ruling delivered this morning.
The Supreme Court reinstated Smith’s case, after it was earlier thrown out by the Court of Appeal on the basis there was no reasonable basis for argument.
The climate activist, of Ngapuhi and Ngati Kahu, says the group including Fonterra, Z Energy and Genesis Energy (which together make around a third of New Zealand’s emissions) have a legal duty to him and others in communities who are being damaged by planet-heating gases.
He wants them to either stop polluting, or start bringing emissions down quickly.
An important feature of the case is the role of tikanga Maori, and how it determines Smith’s relationship to coastal land and waters which are being flooded and damaged.
The Supreme Court noted it was not ruling on whether the case had a good chance of succeeding, only that “Mr Smith now gets his day in court”.
RNZ
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