Climate change activist files High Court proceedings over government ruling

A climate change activist has filed a court case against the government's plans to prevent companies being sued over their greenhouse gas emissions.

Mike Smith's case against six major emitters, including Fonterra and Z Energy, prompted the government's decision to block tort-based litigation over climate change.

Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith said the change would apply to current and future cases - stopping Smith's landmark case from going ahead next April.

Now Smith has filed proceedings with the High Court over the government's plans, asking for a declaration that both the decision and the process behind it were unlawful.

RNZ reported in May that a previously undisclosed briefing document had been provided to the prime minister's office by Fonterra and Z Energy regarding Smith's case.

RNZ also reported officials had told the government not to intervene in the court case.

Smith said the government acted unlawfully by "deciding to interfere with live court proceedings ... without a fair process".

"Something has gone seriously wrong here," he said.

"The government decided to introduce this legislation after the defendants lobbied for it. Their lobbying efforts disappeared from the public record."

Goldsmith did not give him any notice or hear from him before he made the decision, Smith said.

He said he also wrote to Prime Minister Christopher Luxon on 28 May seeking a meeting about how Luxon's office handled the case.

"I have received no response," Smith said.

At the time of the announcement, Goldsmith said Smith's case was "creating uncertainty in business confidence and investments that the government must address".

Changing the law would "remove the possible development of a new regime that contradicts the framework Parliament has already enacted to respond to climate change".

Auckland University Associate Professor Vernon Rive, who was consulted on the government's plans, told officials in his advice that the chances of that happening were very low.

He told RNZ that stopping Smith's case partway through proceedings was "constitutionally abhorrent".