Two law firms behind landmark courtroom battles over climate change say they’re seeing a greater appetite for litigation by individuals and corporations who are concerned about the impacts of climate change and the government’s inaction on the issue.
The Commonwealth Bank of Australia faces shareholder action seeking records on its financing of gas and fossil fuel projects to ensure compliance with the bank’s environmental framework, the latest in the next frontier of litigation demanding climate change accountability.
A green activist who filed a group proceeding alleging the government failed to disclose the impacts of climate change to investors in sovereign bonds does not have a common interest with group members and should have her lawsuit declassed, a court has heard.
The Commonwealth says a landmark ruling in a class action that found it has a duty of care to protect Australian children from the effects of global warming is “incoherent” and distorts its ability to balance competing interests.
The federal Minister for the Environment has lost a bid to declass a class action brought over climate change risks from an expansion of the Whitehaven coal mine, with a judge making a declaration that the government owes a duty to all Australian children to protect them from global warming.
Class actions are the next battleground following Thursday’s Federal Court ruling that the government owes a duty of care to protect children from the risks of climate change, according to a number of legal experts.
The federal Minister for the Environment owes a duty of care to children who could suffer “catastrophic” harms from increased greenhouse gas emissions that would result from approving the expansion of Whitehaven’s Vickery coal mine, a judge has ruled.
The Commonwealth of Australia is seeking to remove all references to representative proceedings from a class action pleading that alleges the government failed to disclose the impacts of climate change to investors in sovereign bonds.
The Federal Government has argued a class action against the expansion of a northern NSW mine has “conspicuously failed” to show that the emissions would contribute to “catastrophic harm”, but a judge has questioned the Commonwealth’s contention that other countries would be responsible for the emissions.
Trial kicked off Tuesday in a landmark class action brought by teenagers seeking to halt the expansion of a Whitehaven coal mine in NSW, with the barrister for the teens arguing catastrophe was likely if the expansion was blessed by the Federal Minister for the Environment.