1pm Sunday 22 September. Ocean Road Community Centre, Paraparaumu Beach.
There are many avenues for citizens to achieve positive climate action. Turning to the courts is one way that is being successfully used to ensure effective action against climate change, including in New Zealand.
Lawyers for Climate Action NZ is a group of barristers, solicitors, and legal academics who use their legal skills and experience to ensure a better future for everyone. They come from all over New Zealand and have specialist expertise in many different areas of the law.
The group have taken cases to the highest courts in New Zealand, along with other administrative bodies. Their work has included challenging the ambition of NZ’s climate targets in the Court of Appeal, supporting a significant win in the Supreme Court in the Smith vs Fonterra case by appearing as intervener, and lodging a complaint against Z Energy for greenwashing in the High Court.
Lawyers for Climate Action NZ Executive Director Jessica Palairet will talk about the background of the group, how the law can be successfully wielded to achieve systems change, and some examples of cases the group have taken.
Arrive for 1pm start (sharp!).
Talk and discussion: 1-2pm
AGM: 2pm
You can help us plan for this event by RSVP’ing: https://forms.gle/YoUaxE9WDxrR8JYJ9
About our guest speaker Jessica Palairet
Jessica is a lawyer and Executive Director at Lawyers for Climate Action NZ. She started her career at the High Court as a Judges’ Clerk, then worked as a junior barrister at a leading set of barristers’ chambers in Auckland. It was at Shortland Chambers that Jessica started volunteering for Lawyers for Climate Action NZ and working on climate litigation. She left Shortland Chambers back in 2022 to move to New York where she obtained a Masters of Law from New York University specialising in international climate litigation, winning the prize for Distinction in her graduating year. She stayed in New York to work as an International Human Rights Law Fellow at the United Nations, before returning to Aotearoa to start work as Lawyers for Climate Action’s first Executive Director and first full-time employee.