The Victoria Supreme Court has dismissed a bid to quash the Environment Protection Authority’s decision to renew the mining licences of the state’s three remaining coal power stations, in a test case for the state’s Climate Change Act.
The lead applicants in a class action by Torres Strait Islanders have detailed their argument for why the federal government has a duty of care to protect them from the effects of climate change, following a Full Court judgment that shot down the duty of care argument in a class action by Australian teenagers.
Australia ranks second in the world for climate-related lawsuits, and the threat of climate litigation looms larger than ever for Australian companies across all sectors, a new report has found.
The Full Federal Court was emphatic in its decision that the environment minister does not owe a duty of care to Australian children to shield them from climate change harm, but there is no doubt the law will be put to the test again soon, says Corrs Chambers Westgarth’s Louise Camenzuli, Julia Green and Max Newman.
The WA Supreme Court has thrown out challenges to Woodside Energy’s proposals to expand its Scarborough LNG project, finding there were no errors in the state EPA’s approval.
The Morrison government has rejected class action claims that it owes a duty of care to Torres Strait Islanders to protect them against the negative effects of climate change, claiming the alleged duty cannot apply to high level government policy.
A leading climate change lawyer at Baker McKenzie has made the jump to Gilbert + Tobin, less than a year after the US firm’s renewable energy practice lost its global co-head and two partners to another Big Six firm.
The Morrison government has denied that it has any obligation to disclose climate change risks to investors of its sovereign bonds as it defends a world first class action alleging global warming is a material risk to the bond market.
Woodside Energy has been sued over its $16.5 billion Scarborough gas field development, with an environmental group alleging the project’s approval was invalid because the government of Western Australia failed to properly account for its impact on climate change.
A judge overseeing a climate change class action against the government will be invited to visit the Torres Strait to see the alleged erosion of sacred sites, but before then the Commonwealth is seeking details on when it allegedly knew of the effects of global warming and the scope of its alleged duty of care.