In climate news — NZ reverse oil and gas exploration ban & US seek to repeal the ruling that greenhouse gas emissions threaten health w/ Greenpeace executive director Russel Norman: 5 August, 2025

The International Court of Justice has delivered a landmark, albeit nonbinding ruling, that countries have a legal obligation to act on climate change.

In this context, climate news in this past week has raised worry for climate advocates.

The New Zealand government has passed legislation to reverse the 2018 ban on new oil and gas exploration projects, which is predicted to increase the country’s emissions by 14.2 million tonnes according to official analysis. 

As well, the United States are seeking to negate the finding that greenhouse gas emissions pose any danger to human health, with the aim to reduce the power of the Environmental Protection Agency to restrict activities that produce these emissions.

Wire Host Sara spoke to Greenpeace executive director Russel Norman about these two cases and their potential consequences for global climate action.