Last December, Labour made the first in a series of terrible climate decisions, over-ruling Climate Change Minister James Shaw and the Climate Change Commission to sabotage the ETS by setting excessively high volumes and low prices. The result was immediate: the carbon price crashed from ~$85/ton and began a long-term decline (which has only worsened as Labour has done more to undermine it). But today, thanks to Lawyers for Climate Action, that decision has been overturned:
Today the High Court gave judgment in favour of Lawyers for Climate Action NZ Inc in a judicial review of the Regulations which set the number of additional Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) units available over the next five years and imposed various price restrictions. The Regulations are referred to as the Climate Change (Auctions, Limits, and Price Controls for Units) Amendment Regulations 2022 and were made in December 2022.The decision was by consent - Shaw accepted that his decision-making process was flawed, and that he did not have reasonable grounds to conclude that Labour's preferred settings were lawful and in accordance with our emissions budgets or Paris NDC. Which means they will have to be re-made. The government is currently considering settings for 2024 - 2028, and this decision will neatly allow them to bypass the statutory requirements for changing the settings for the next two years (since those requirements were met or irrelevant for 2024 and 2025 respectively).The judgment means that the Minister of Climate Change must now reconsider the unit limit and price control settings for 2023 to 2027 by 30 September 2023.
This is a significant victory for the climate, and a significant defeat for chickenshit, sabotaging Labour. And hopefully it'll help set a convention in future of always following the Climate Commission, rather than trying to over-rule it. We all owe Lawyers for Climate Action a debt of gratitude. And if you'd like to support them in their work, you can make a donation here.
