Environment

The Australian Securities and Investments Commission has made cracking down on greenwashing one of its top enforcement priorities, as environmental, social and governance proposals by activist shareholders hit record levels.

Oil exploration company PTTEP has argued 15,000 Indonesian seaweed farmers who brought a class action alleging their crops were damaged after an oil spill in the Timor Sea will need to individually persuade the court to allow their claims out of time.

Tiwi Islanders will file a new application to prevent drilling continuing on Santos’ $4.7 billion Barossa gas project after losing a challenge to stop the energy giant from beginning work on the first sea well.

A government-approved plan to build a waste facility in western Tasmania has been parked,  after environmental campaigners won a judgment declaring the federal government’s approval of the proposed tailings storage facility was invalid.

A judge has put a climate change class action on behalf of Torres Strait Islanders on a tight timetable and committed herself to handing down judgment soon after trial, saying the case was one of “considerable urgency”.

The lead applicants in a climate change class action by Torres Strait Islanders are hoping the Commonwealth will admit climate change targets set by the Morrison government were “woefully inadequate”, a court heard Friday. 

A judge has questioned whether Tiwi Islanders’ delay in filing an application to stop Santos from beginning drilling on an offshore gas project this month may have doomed the bid.

An environmental group is challenging the approval of an extension for Whitehaven’s Narrabi coal mine, arguing the NSW Independent Planning Commission failed to consider the project’s impact on climate change.

Tiwi islanders in a Federal Court challenge to the Barossa offshore gas project have won an expedited trial, but the case won’t be heard before drilling starts in mid-July.

The Australian Conservation Foundation has brought proceedings against oil and gas producer Woodside Energy, arguing its Scarborough gas project in Western Australia cannot go ahead until its climate impacts are assessed.