Last week, world-leading climate scientists called out the Government’s approach to agricultural emissions. This week, climate lawyers have sued the Government because its Emissions Reductions Plans do not add up.

“Luxon’s Government has chosen to pour oil, coal and gas on the climate crisis fire. Their climate ‘plan’ is not worth the paper it is written on. That’s why they’re being sued today,” says the Green Party’s co-leader and spokesperson for climate change, Chlöe Swarbrick.

“I called it a demonstrable lie when the Prime Minister told Parliament in December 2023 that he wasn’t weakening actions on climate - while he was actively weakening actions on climate. It was and remains a demonstrable lie. This is the first leg of the legal case.

“The Luxon Government’s second Emissions Reduction Plan relies on unproven, economically unfeasible technologies and plastering our country in pine trees. This is the second leg of the legal case.

“Christopher Luxon has spent the better part of two years telling the country everything is fine while he dismantles effective climate policy, gives handouts to the fossil fuel sector and platforms lobbyist’s pseudoscience on agricultural emissions. This would be a meme - a joke - if it wasn’t so serious.

“The Greens have shown we can reduce climate-changing emissions five times faster than the Government’s ‘plan,’ while reducing the cost of living and improving our quality of life.

“New Zealanders deserve so much better than this Government taking them for chumps,” says Chlöe Swarbrick.

NOTES:

• Question Time on Hansard from December 2023, regarding the “demonstrable lie”: 1. Question No. 1—Prime Minister - New Zealand Parliament
• As recently as the last sitting week of Parliament the Greens were calling out the Government for their plan not stacking up: 8. Question No. 8—Prime Minister - New Zealand Parliament
• A press release from the Environmental Law Initiative, and a summary of discontinued actions being removed from the first Emissions Reduction Plan.

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