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.
Earlier this month, the Supreme Court overturned lower court rulings (pdf) which had struck out the claim, meaning he can now present his case to the High Court.
Mr. Smith is not seeking damages, saying he only wants a safer world. He has raised three causes of action in tort: public nuisance, negligence, and a novel duty to “make corporates responsible to the public for their emissions.”...
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