Can the Commonwealth’s climate targets be legally negligent? An Australian Urgenda

In June 2015, The Hague District Court found the Dutch government’s climate targets negligent in the case of Urgenda v The Netherlands. The court ordered the government to increase its mitigation ambition in light of the pervasive threat of climate change. Since then, there has been considerable interest in running a similar case in Australia. The central claim, that the Commonwealth’s climate mitigation targets might form the basis of legally recognisable negligence, would be difficult to establish in Australian law. This seminar outlines the major hurdles to the legal claim’s success before contending that each may be surmountable. Despite considerable barriers, a claim in negligence against the Commonwealth government for insufficient action on climate change has a prospect of success.