Court overturns mine construction verdict
Australia does not have to protect the young generation
03/15/2022, 10:15 p.m
Eight Australian schoolgirls are suing the expansion of a coal mine. The court finds that the Ministry of the Environment must protect the young generation from “carbon dioxide emissions in the earth’s atmosphere”. A potential weapon against similar projects is born – and now clipped again.
An Australian court has overturned a landmark ruling requiring the Environment Department to protect children from the harmful effects of climate change. The federal court upheld the appeal of Environment Minister Sussan Ley. It doesn’t have to weigh the harm climate change will do to children when approving new fossil fuel projects. The original plaintiffs are “devastated”.
A group of eight students successfully sued last year against the controversial expansion of a coal mine near Sydney. The court ruled at the time that the ministry had a duty to prevent “injury or death” to minors due to “carbon dioxide emissions in the earth’s atmosphere”. Environmental groups saw the ruling as a potential legal weapon in the fight against fossil fuels.
Environment Minister Ley immediately appealed the verdict and was now right. The federal court sided with the minister, but mainly followed Ley’s argument that the emissions from the mine posed only “a slightly increased risk” to the students.
Initiator of the lawsuit “devastated”
Anjalia Sharma, who initiated the original lawsuit, said she and her fellow campaigners were “devastated”. “Two years ago Australia was on fire, today it’s under water. Burning coal makes bushfires and floods even more catastrophic and deadly,” said the 17-year-old, demanding: “Something has to change.”
Co-plaintiff Izzy Raj-Seppings, on the other hand, pointed out a positive aspect of the judgment: The court accepted that young people “are bearing the brunt of the effects of the climate crisis,” said the 15-year-old. The students’ lawyers still have the option of going to Australia’s highest court.