Issue #30: Make it criminal

On taking climate inaction to court and car-free cities

Kia ora, and happy Esperanto Day!

It’s been a big week for climate lawsuits. This week in Wellington, university students are suing Minister Woods for allowing oil & gas permits to go ahead despite the government’s own status of climate emergency. The United Kingdom has also ruled that their Net Zero policies are unable to achieve the statutory targets via a lawsuit, and lawyers in the Netherlands are taking companies to court for false “greenwashing” advertisements. Across the ditch, two Traditional Owners from Guda Maluyligal in the Torres Strait are taking the Australian government to court for failing to do enough to prevent climate change.

What do we do when governments and corporations make irresponsible decisions? We hold them liable.

This has worked before - 866 people in the Netherlands took the Dutch government to court in 2015 and won. The court ordered the government to significantly reduce the Netherlands’ greenhouse gas emissions within 5 years. As a result, the Netherlands now has some of the strongest climate policies in the world. When the usual avenues of protest don’t seem to be working, legal action is a good way to escalate to make the consequences of inaction clear. 

Russel Norman @RusselNorman

The NZ Climate Ministers lawyers argued in court that the 1.5 degree goal in the ‘Zero Carbon’ Act was just aspirational; and the Auckland Council’s lawyers argued exactly the same about the Council 63% reduction target. So they don’t have to, you know, cut emissions.

This useful site shows you how many global lawsuits are active, if you want to go down that wormhole. 

What can you do today?

The most-clicked link from last week’s issue was the campaign to cancel the tendering of the oil blocs. Over 100,000 people signed it and it was handed over to the DRC presidency yesterday. Fingers crossed they cancel🤞

🐝 If you have 5 minutes: Spill tea not oil

• Our friends at Generation Zero have found out that Mobil is a sponsor of TVNZ. While this may seem benign, it means that our national news is linked with ExxonMobil, the international oil and gas monolith.
  Action: Tell TVNZ to drop Mobil as a sponsor

• One great way to phase out the production of plastic from fossil fuels is to increase the cost of it. We love this tax on virgin plastics - sign it and share!
  Action: Join the call to tax virgin plastics

🐇 If you have 15 minutes: Law is the new pink

• Know any lawyers? Climate change will impact all of us (including lawyers!) and the way we work. Lawyers for Climate Action are a great organisation that use their legal skills to fight for a better future, and they’re looking for new volunteers.
  Action: Nudge a lawyer to volunteer to take organisations to court for the climate

• Wellington’s getting new bike racks, which is awesome! This is due to many cyclists asking their council for better bike infrastructure.
  Action: If you’re not in Wellington, use this template to give your council a nudge to install more bike racks

💃🏽 If you have 30 minutes or more: Go the golden mile

• There are designs for Wellington’s new pedestrianised area, which has made the bold move to make the golden mile car-free!
  Action: Send positive feedback on the new design using our quick email template

In case you missed it!

• This petition to save the Denniston Plateau from open-cast coal mining is closing soon.

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That’s all for today, folks 👋🏽 Thanks for taking action. Enjoy this 15-minute TED talk by Renée Lertzman on how psychology around grief and anxiety can help us maintain resilience, creativity, and wellbeing while contributing to the climate movement. We found this quote particularly relatable:

“We talked about how we were feeling about the world, openly and honestly, and no one told me at any point to be more positive or more hopeful. Not once. And surprisingly, I found myself feeling better. I actually felt like I could face these issues that had seemed so insurmountable more head-on. And I had this epiphany: What if by understanding ourselves and one another, we could find our way through this crisis in a new and different way?”

See you next week, 

Dhanya, Emily, and Jenny from the Climate Club