Trapped by floods and fearing death in the heat: the Australians taking legal action over the climate crisis
Ten Australians have lodged a complaint with the UN Human Rights Committee alleging that the federal government’s support for coal and gas developments for export violates their human rights by fuelling climate extremes that have caused them harm, backed by the Human Rights Law Centre, Environmental Justice Australia and Earthjustice. The complaint relies on personal accounts from claimants including a man trapped by Brisbane’s 2022 floods, a man who lost his home in the 2019–20 bushfires, a woman bedridden during Adelaide’s heatwave, and an Indigenous woman whose coastline was affected by a toxic algal bloom. It is the first international legal claim against a state for climate harm since the International Court of Justice’s advisory opinion, which found states have a legal obligation to prevent it.