Fonterra are environmental vandals and this Government are climate criminals
As the extreme wet events following extreme droughts scar the land permanently and interrupt agricultural calendars around the world, let’s not forget who is responsible for this, the big polluters!
That this Government of Climate Criminals is changing the rules to stop the people suing environmental vandals like Fonterra is an obscenity…
Shocking abuse of power – Greenpeace slams Govt’s climate law change.
The Government has announced plans to pass a law retrospectively preventing companies from being sued for the damage that their climate pollution is causing New Zealanders. Greenpeace Aotearoa is slamming the announcement as a ‘shocking abuse of executive power to help corporate polluters’.
The proposed law change would prevent current cases from being heard, including the landmark case due to be heard next year brought by iwi leader Mike Smith, who is suing Fonterra and six of New Zealand’s other largest polluters for their contribution to climate change.
Greenpeace spokesperson Gen Toop says, “This Government is trying to protect big polluting businesses from paying for the climate damage they have caused, while ordinary New Zealanders’ lives and livelihoods are threatened by repeated climate disasters.”
“Big polluters like Fonterra and the oil and gas industry are profiting from the climate crisis, and it is everyday people who are paying the price, from skyrocketing insurance premiums to the enormous cost of rebuilding roads, bridges and other infrastructure after climate storms.”
Costly floods and storms are becoming more frequent and intense as a result of rising levels of climate pollution. This year the country has already had to declare more extreme weather related states of emergency than for the entirety of 2025.
Toop says that preventing the courts from considering legitimate claims against major emitters would have a chilling effect on democracy in New Zealand, and set a dangerous precedent.
“This is a shocking abuse of executive power. The courts exist to hold powerful interests to account and protect the public interest. Ministers should not be rewriting the law to shut down cases they don’t like.”
In 2024, the Supreme Court unanimously ruled that Smith’s case could proceed to trial, finding that major emitters may be held legally responsible for the harm caused by their emissions.
“It is a remarkable act of hypocrisy that a Government that says it opposes retrospective law and says it wants to protect property rights is using retrospective law to block ordinary people from suing corporations for the property damage they have caused,” says Toop.
“Mike Smith’s case is a groundbreaking effort to hold some of New Zealand’s biggest polluters accountable for the harm they are causing. But this Government is stepping in to protect corporate profits at the expense of people, nature and future generations.
“We all want our kids and grandkids to have a safe future free from climate disruption. People will continue to stand up and fight for that, no matter what this Coalition Government does.”
Greenpeace is calling on the Government to abandon the proposed amendment bill and allow the courts to hear Mike Smith’s case.
Greenpeace
…Just 100 companies are responsible for 71% of global emissions that are causing the climate crisis, and big oil KNEW in the 1990s that they were creating catastrophic climate change.
The comparisons between how Big Tobacco lied and manipulated the science linking smoking to cancer is as audacious as Big Oil has lied and manipulated the science linking CO2 to global warming.
We should be collectively suing Big Pollution now and using the payouts to fund the urgent Green transition away from fossil fuels.
It is outrageous that our Government has not led this fight and instead capitulated to the polluters rather than challenge them. Indigenous people have been at the forefront of the climate crisis battle and have been the frontline between corporate polluting greed and sustainable habitats.
You can see why the State illegally spied on Māori Iwi fighting big oil in this country.
People of conscience will increasingly see violent activism against Polluters is the only way forward now the Government have removed the legal means with which the people can protest them.
Here’s the reality, the climate collapse we are witnessing in real time will drive a political activism that will measure its success in the ability to destroy infrastructure that allows the polluters to continue profiting.
That moment just became a lot closer with this ruling.
The saddest part is too many NZers can’t afford to buy NZ produced food yet companies like fonterra are major polluters.
Shareholder profits are obviously more important to this government than a safe environment and affordable necessities of life like housing, electricity and water. While their inept decisions have had some restriction on house values you can be sure that getting that gravy train moving again is a priority for them as well.