Around the world, (click here) the courts are increasingly being used as a battleground in the fight against climate change. MLS News spoke with experts about what this means for business, government and the legal community.
By Kate Stanton.
In February, the NSW Land and Environment Court ruled against a proposal to build the Rocky Hill open-cut coal mine in Gloucester, a farming community in rural NSW. The court cited the mine’s impact on the social and environmental welfare of the town as one reason for rejecting the proposal. In an Australian first, Chief Judge Brian Preston also recognised the country’s obligations under the Paris Climate Agreement. It was a landmark decision, one that signalled how Australian courts could start approaching climate change, says Jacqueline Peel, a professor of environmental law at Melbourne Law School. “The court talked a lot about the impacts of the mine on climate change, not just for the local environment but in the broader global context,” Peel says.
The Rocky Hill mine decision is part of a growing, worldwide movement to tackle climate change through the justice system. Many environmental activists see litigation as a viable path – in addition to public protest and lobbying politicians – to creating change where governments have been slow to act. Brendan Sydes (BSc 1993, LLB(Hons) 1993, MEnv 2006), CEO of Environmental Justice Australia, says that in the absence of major policy developments, climate change litigation pushes courts to develop a jurisprudence around environmental law. “I think we really need solutions at all levels of government, but legal action has a really important role to play in continuing to raise those demands and force that change,” he says....
