7 - ‘Next Generation’ Climate Change Litigation in Australia

Summary

Since the conclusion and entry into force of the Paris Agreement and the high-profile Urgenda case, possibilities for exploring new avenues of strategic climate change litigation in Australia have received considerable attention. To date, most Australian cases have involved administrative challenges to projects under environmental laws to have climate change impacts taken into account. While this ‘first generation’ of cases has achieved significant results, there is increasing interest in taking forward a ‘next generation’ of cases that have a broader focus on holding governments and corporations directly accountable for the climate change implications of their actions. This chapter explores the contours of next-generation climate change litigation in Australia, including the drivers for these lawsuits and the potential legal avenues by which they might be brought. Rather than abandoning first-generation challenges — which have targeted Australia’s principal sources of greenhouse gas emissions such as coal-fired power stations and coal mines — we argue that the most fruitful strategy for future climate change litigation in Australia is one that continues to advance lower risk cases building from existing litigation, while simultaneously attempting novel approaches.