Judge ruled no scope
26 August 2022We have been waiting patiently for the Environment Court's findings on the Scope of our appeal on the proposed Taranaki Coastal Plan, which we have now received. Unfortunately the Judge's findings are not particularly helpful to our case. Basically there is no scope on climate change, and very limited scope on ocean acidification. Our barristers suggested that we have three options going forward:
1. Appeal the Judge's findings to the High Court, and then, if the decision went against CJT, onward to the Supreme Court. In both instances, CJT would risk significant costs to be awarded to TRC and the fossil fuel lobby group ERA. In that event, CJT would be unlikely to have the funds and would be forced to disband, leaving a significant debt.
2. Continue in the Environment Court on our initial grounds of Ocean Acidification. However, the scope is limited, and our Ocean Acidification expert is not keen to proceed only on this point.
3. Withdraw CJT's appeal.
After some thorough discussions, we decided to withdraw our appeal, and save our energy and resources for another legal battle, should it arise.
So here is to thank our supporters who have kindly donated to our appeal. The donations will be returned directly from Give-A-Little to your accounts. You are of course welcome to support our work through volunteering your time and skill, or direct koha: https://climatejusticetaranaki.wordpress.com/what-you-can-do/support-us-with-a-koha/
Thank you again.