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 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.
The High Court has unanimously rejected a constitutional challenge against the Victorian government over its COVID-19 lockdown measures.
The Victorian government has not decided how it will respond to a constitutional challenge brought in the High Court against the state’s COVID-19 lockdown measures, and has been given just four more days to make its move.
A group of teenagers has launched a class action against the Commonwealth Minister for the Environment in a bid to stop the proposed extension of a northern NSW coal mine.