Lawyers for Climate Action NZ has today filed an application with the Supreme Court for leave to bring an appeal on the level of ambition of New Zealand’s climate targets. The application follows the Court of Appeal’s decision earlier this year dismissing the group’s case against the Climate Change Commission and the Minister of Climate Change.

“We are generally very supportive of the Climate Change Commission’s advice, and they play a critically important role in New Zealand’s climate response”, says Jessica Palairet, Executive Director of Lawyers for Climate Action NZ Inc.

“However, we believe the Climate Change Commission made errors in its early advice to the Minister of Climate Change when setting Aotearoa New Zealand’s domestic emissions budgets and revised 2030 Nationally Determined Contribution under the Paris Agreement.”

“Our targets aren’t ambitious enough. Supported by seven independent experts, we’re arguing that the targets are not aligned with what’s required to limit warming to 1.5°C, and the Commission didn’t carry out its analysis in the way the law requires.”

“The Climate Change Response Act requires our emissions budgets to be “set with a view to contributing to the global effort under the Paris Agreement to limit the global average temperature increase to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels”. However, despite the science telling us that the world needs to halve emissions by 2030 to reduce warming to 1.5°C, our emissions budgets allow net emissions in 2030 to be higher than they were in 2010”.

“We do not believe that allowing our net carbon dioxide emissions to increase can be consistent with the IPCC’s analysis or the Paris Agreement goal of limiting global warming to 1.5°C degrees”, says Palairet. 

“We first filed this case in 2021, and the Court of Appeal released its judgment on 28 March 2025. The Court of Appeal found that although the Commission’s advice could be judicially reviewed, the Commission’s approach was not unlawful. We respectfully disagree. Because it is such an important issue, we are asking the Supreme Court to consider it. If leave is granted, it will be the first time a case about the Climate Change Response Act 2002 reaches our top court.”

“Climate change is one of the greatest challenges of our time. The research has been clear for years that the world needs to cut its emissions in half by 2030 to protect the planet and take advantage of the opportunities that climate action creates. However, despite this urgency, successive governments have failed to make the decisions necessary to secure a safe future.”

“If our targets aren’t ambitious enough, this affects our entire climate policy response. It means that our climate policies aren’t geared towards achieving the objectives our Government set in the Climate Change Response Act and the Paris Agreement: limiting warming to 1.5°C.”

“We have filed an application to seek leave to appeal to the Supreme Court. The Court will decide whether to grant leave over the next couple of months, after which, if leave is granted, it will set down a hearing date.”

Lawyers for Climate Action NZ Inc is an incorporated society of lawyers committed to using the law to drive action on climate change. It is bringing this case in the public interest, to clarify the law and ensure better decision-making into the future. Our legal team is working for free, and has done so since we first filed proceedings in 2021.

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