The latest edition of our Sustainable Views newsletter<\/p>\n
Dear reader,<\/p>\n
In 2020, the then prime minister of New Zealand Jacinda Ardern promised a carbon-neutral government by 2025, calling climate change \u201cone of the greatest challenges of our time\u201d. Fast forward to May 2026 and the government appears to be taking a very different approach, saying it will amend the country\u2019s climate legislation to prevent litigation on the basis of climate damage liabilities.<\/p>\n
Ben and Elizabeth take a look at the announcement<\/a>, how it came about and what it means for New Zealand, businesses operating in the country, and climate litigation more widely.\u00a0<\/p>\n Some legal experts say the move puts the country closer to the US on climate legislation challenges.<\/p>\n \u201cThe New Zealand response divides it into a camp that we\u2019re seeing playing out in some places in the US,\u201d says Catherine Higham, senior policy fellow at the Grantham Research Institute, a climate change research hub at the London School of Economics. Sarah Mead, co-director of non-profit the Climate Litigation Network, says: \u201cThe US is the only other jurisdiction where we\u2019re seeing a concerning reach of the executive into the judicial function. It places New Zealand as an international outlier.\u201d<\/p>\n And many of them conclude it shows New Zealand has gone from being a climate leader under Ardern to a climate laggard under current Prime Minister Christopher Luxon. However, there is also evidence suggesting the country made less progress on climate than Ardern\u2019s ambitious words suggest. A study<\/a> by researchers at the University of Wellington, published in January 2025, says advances were made on climate policy during Ardern\u2019s tenure, but that \u201cpolicy changes were not transformative, and few policies were enacted that will substantially decrease emissions\u201d.<\/p>\n One quote often cited in relation to Ardern\u2019s stance on climate change is her reference to the issue as her \u201cgeneration\u2019s nuclear-free moment\u201d. The statement was an allusion to New Zealand\u2019s decision in the 1980s to be a nuclear-free country, including banning nuclear-powered vessels from its waters \u2014 a choice that strained relations with the US. This weekend, New Zealand\u2019s defence minister, Chris Penk, was reported<\/a> as saying the country should have a \u201cconversation\u201d on its anti-nuclear stance. Luxon says the stance is non-negotiable.<\/p>\n French connection\u00a0<\/p>\n Another country where action on climate change could change direction is France. President Emmanuel Macron, in power since 2017, the same year Ardern was also elected to head her country, has always been good at climate rhetoric.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cBy polluting the oceans, not mitigating CO\u2082 emissions, and destroying our biodiversity \u2014 we are killing our planet. Let us face it. There is no planet B,\u201d he told US lawmakers in 2018.\u00a0<\/p>\n