A coalition of climate attorneys is suing New Zealand’s climate minister in what is being billed as the first case in the world to challenge a government’s reliance on tree planting to achieve climate targets.
Lawyers for Climate Action NZ and the Environmental Law Initiative filed suit Tuesday in the High Court of New Zealand, alleging that the country’s emissions reduction plan isn’t aggressive enough to meet the requirements of a 2002 climate law.
“The world’s leading scientists have made clear that this is the critical decade for climate action — but the New Zealand government has been quietly cutting climate policies, and relying on planting pine trees as an alternative,” Lawyers for Climate Action NZ said in a statement.
The groups argue that since taking office in 2023, the government led by Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has canceled 35 climate policies and actions which were part of a recent emissions reduction plan — without consulting the public, as required by law.
