Climate change litigation in Australia : law and practice in the sunburnt country / Laura Schuijers and Margaret Young.

Melbourne : The University of Melbourne, 2020.

199423

LIability (Law) Australia.

Negligence Australia.

Torts.

Climatic changes -- Law and legislation.

Liability for environmental damages Australia.

Human rights Australia.

I. Introduction

II. Mitigation and the state

a. Legislative shortcomings

b. Administrative law limitations

c. Difficulties in challenging emissions from Australian fossil fuels

d. Rights and duty-based litigation

III. Adaptation and subnational entities

a. Federal, state and local responsibilities

b. Future development and precaution

c. Public-private divide

IV. Accountability for risk management and risk disclosure

a. Duties of companies, directors, banks, and fund managers

b. Misleading and deceptive ‘greenwashing'

c. Duties of Australian public officials when issuing sovereign bonds

V. Conclusion.

What is the role of litigation in the Australian response to climate change? Catastrophic bushfires and massive coral bleaching of Australia's iconic Great Barrier Reef have gained worldwide infamy. Litigants have drawn on these and other climate -related events in domestic court proceedings that challenge Australia's legislative and executive inertia. This chapter examines the potential and limitations of climate -related litigation in Australia. It analyses cases, doctrine and associated legislation at the federal and state level . The chapter investigates suits for failure to mitigate climate change, including challenges to the approval of coal mines that contribute to global greenhouse gas emissions. It compares the relative success of claims relating to adaptation. The growing transnational influence of climate -related proceedings against private enterprises is also discussed, alongside the pending class action against the Australian government for failing to disclose climate risks when issuing sovereign bonds. The chapter demonstrates that judicial decisions, though constrained, provide impetus to improve Australia's response to climate change. Litigation can help to align Australia's domestic actions with the international goals of the Paris Agreement. - Abstract.

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