Smith v Fonterra [2024] NZSC 5
The New Zealand Supreme Court has delivered a landmark decision on a case brought by Māori elder, Mike Smith, against seven of New Zealand's largest greenhouse gas emitters.
Prior to this decision, the common law had entrenched the prevailing orthodoxy that tort claims could not be used to challenge or address climate change and that the regulation of greenhouse gas emitters was best left to the other branches of government through statutory regulation.
This case is significant as it marks one of the first decisions where a court has recognised that tort law can be used to challenge the greenhouse gas emissions of a private entity.