An Australian court on Tuesday overturned a landmark court ruling that forced the country's environment minister to protect children from climate change.
Last year the legal victory of a group of high school students had been hailed by environmental groups as a legal weapon to fight fossil fuels.
But now the federal court has ruled in favor of an appeal by Environment Minister Sussan Ley, who will no longer have to assess the damage that climate change would cause to children when considering approval of new fossil fuel-based energy projects.
The ruling overturned a July 2021 ruling by a lower court that considered that the minister had an obligation to “avoid causing personal injury or death” to children under 18 years of age due to “carbon dioxide emissions into the Earth's atmosphere.”
“Two years ago, Australia was on fire; today, it is underwater. Burning coal makes wildfires and floods more catastrophic and deadly. Something has to change,” said 17-year-old Anjali Sharma, who initiated legal action in 2020.
Australia is suffering the consequences of climate change, with droughts, forest fires, degradation of the Great Barrier Reef and increasingly frequent and intense flooding.
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