NZ climate activist faces up to 10 years in prison over fake letter saying fossil fuel event cancelled

A New Zealand climate activist who wrote to oil executives posing as a fossil fuel conference organiser and telling them their gathering was cancelled has been found guilty of forgery, and could face up to a decade in prison.

Rosemary Penwarden, 64, who sent the letter to an oil company’s delegates argued it was a form of “satirical protest”, and said she was astonished by the outcome.

“I like to think I was a threat to this industry, but for goodness sake, I’m 52kg, five foot three inches high, and 64,” said Penwarden. “These are the biggest polluting companies in our entire world. I felt it was important that they heard from little grandmothers.”

Penwarden, who previously made headlines for building her own electric car, admitted making and sending the false letter. Her lawyer, Ben Smith, argued that the letter was not intended to be seen as authentic, or sent to deceive, but instead had a satirical purpose.

“I felt like it was a good time to be quite creative and to try different ways of communicating with the people inside,” said Penwarden.

On Wednesday, a jury at the Dunedin district court found her guilty of two charges; making a forged document, and using a forged document. Both relate to a letter telling notifying oil industry delegates that the 2019 Petroleum Exploration and Production Association of New Zealand (PEPANZ) annual conference had been postponed.

News of the letter made its way back to the PEPANZ Office, and organisers quickly informed delegates the conference was going ahead as planned – and it did.

Sentencing is set for September, and carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in jail.

Penwarden’s letter was laid out with a PEPANZ letterhead, and a row of member logos along the bottom. Less than a week before the conference, Penwarden sent it to a number of delegates from the email address “conferencepepanz@gmail.com”.

It begins formally, and ends with what Penwarden considered the punchline. “We are deeply concerned at the rapidly accelerating social and political changes engulfing us, highlighted by many of our own children preparing to strike from school to demand a safe future,” she wrote. “Despite our best efforts at secrecy, activists have discovered this year’s conference and were yet again planning noise and disruption. But there is a silver lining to all of this: we will not be there to listen to that incessant chanting.”

It was this phrase that the chief scientist for PGS Australia, Dr Andrew Long found curious when he received the letter. He wondered if the email was “hijacked”, New Zealand outlet Stuff reported.

Seven months later, in June 2020, police seized Penwarden’s laptop and phone and laid charges against her.

Crown prosecutor Richard Smith told jurors the trial wasn’t about debating climate change or Penwarden’s character, but the use of a falsified document. “It was just to cause disruption to the conference with a thinly veiled defence of satire woven into it,” Smith said.

Penwarden was granted bail and will be sentenced on 8 September. She is planning to apply for discharge without conviction.

“It’s designed to deter me, and it’s had the opposite effect,” she said.

cover photo:Rosemary Penwarden, a New Zealand woman who could face years in jail after being found guilty of forgery over a fake letter telling petroleum conference delegates the event had been cancelled. Photograph: supplied by Rosemary Penwarden