Australian court overturns landmark climate change ruling in case filed by teenagers

Melbourne: The Australian government on Tuesday won an appeal against a landmark ruling that it has a duty of care to protect children from the harm caused by climate change when approving new fossil fuel projects, in a case filed by eight teenagers, including an Indian-origin environmentalist.

In May, Anjali Sharma, a 17-year-old high-school student of Indian-origin from Melbourne and seven other teenage environmentalists, led the legal battle against the Australian government. The decision was hailed as a world first, but it has been successfully challenged by the Australian environment minister Sussan Ley.

The teenagers could still take the case to Australia’s highest court. The Federal Court on Tuesday found Australia’s environment minister Ley did not have a duty of care to protect children from the harm caused by climate change, news.com. au reported.

“Today’s ruling leaves us devastated, but it will not deter us in our fight for climate justice,” said Sharma, in a statement released by their lawyers. “Climate change is already wreaking havoc on the lives of Australians. Two years ago, Australia was on fire; today, it’s underwater.” “Burning coal makes bushfires and floods more catastrophic and more deadly. Something needs to change. Our leaders need to step up and act.” The students’ lawyer David Barnden said their legal team would carefully review Tuesday’s decision, the report added. —PTI