New Zealand Passes Bill Blocking Climate Tort Claims

Key Takeaways

• Parliament Passes Climate Tort Bill: New Zealand’s Parliament passed the Climate Change Response (Tort Liability) Amendment Bill on Aug. 18 by a 67-53 vote.
• Tort Liability Barred: The legislation prevents civil tort liability for climate-change effects arising from greenhouse gas emissions, including activities that cause or contribute to those emissions.
• Existing Proceedings Covered: The statutory bar applies retrospectively to proceedings that began before the legislation takes effect but have not been finally determined.
• Climate Regulations Remain: The amendment does not remove New Zealand’s existing emissions targets, emissions budgets or Emissions Trading Scheme requirements.

Deep Dive

New Zealand’s Parliament has passed legislation barring civil tort claims over climate-change effects arising from greenhouse gas emissions, closing a potential avenue of liability for companies and other emitters.

The Climate Change Response (Tort Liability) Amendment Bill passed its third reading on Aug. 18 by 67 votes to 53. The government bill amends the Climate Change Response Act 2002 to establish a statutory bar on tort liability for emissions-related climate effects.

Under the legislation, a person, including the Crown, cannot be held liable in tort for climate-change effects arising from greenhouse gas emissions. The protection extends to activities that cause or contribute to emissions and to activities associated with them.

The measure is intended to prevent claims including those based on public nuisance, negligence or other duties developed through common law from becoming a separate route for imposing liability over greenhouse gas emissions.

Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith has said the government wants climate policy and responsibility for emissions to be determined through the framework established by Parliament rather than through individual tort cases.

The government has also presented the change as a matter of regulatory certainty. Its position is that allowing emissions-related liability to develop through the courts could create a parallel set of obligations alongside New Zealand’s existing statutory climate framework.

The amendment does not remove that framework. New Zealand’s emissions targets and emissions budgets under the Climate Change Response Act remain in place, as does the New Zealand Emissions Trading Scheme. Businesses subject to requirements under those arrangements will continue to be bound by them. What changes is the ability to pursue damages or other remedies through tort law for climate-change effects attributed to greenhouse gas emissions.

The legislation also has retrospective reach. Its provisions apply to proceedings commenced before the amendment takes effect but not finally determined, as well as proceedings brought after commencement. The bar can apply regardless of whether the relevant activity, emissions or climate-change effects occurred before, on or after the law takes effect.

The bill further provides that no person is entitled to compensation as a result of the amendments. The government has argued that climate change presents economic, environmental and social policy questions that require decisions across the economy and are better addressed through national legislation and regulation. The amendment effectively draws a boundary between those regulatory obligations and tort law, leaving emissions-related climate policy with Parliament and the statutory system it has established.

The practical effect is a narrower field of climate-related legal exposure in New Zealand. Existing regulatory and statutory responsibilities remain, but greenhouse gas emissions and activities that cause or contribute to them will no longer provide a basis for tort liability for resulting climate-change effects.

The bill is scheduled to come into force the day after receiving Royal assent.

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