Greenpeace has lost a Supreme Court appeal over Genesis Power's proposal to build a gas-fired electricity generation plant in Rodney, north of Auckland.
Legislation prohibits councils from taking account of the effect of greenhouse gas emissions on climate change except when considering proposals for renewable energy developments that would reduce those emissions.
The Court of Appeal ruled that this exception applied only to proposals involving the use of renewable sources of energy production, and it granted Genesis Power a declaration to that effect.
In Friday's decision a majority of the Supreme Court has held that that interpretation was correct.
