Islanders in Australia demand government action in landmark lawsuit to prevent climate disaster
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Aside from the hearings in Saibai, the federal court held hearings on two other islands, Boigu (above) and Badu.
PHOTO: AFP
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SYDNEY – Off the north-east tip of Australia, a group of islanders has launched a landmark case against the federal government, claiming that a failure to tackle climate change has caused rising seas and extreme weather events that are destroying their way of life.
A federal court judge this week travelled to the small island of Saibai, which is part of Australia but is just 4km from the Papua New Guinea coastline, to hear evidence about the impact of the changing environment on the lives of the island’s 291 residents.
The hearing included a visit to a burial site, where the remains of the residents’ ancestors have washed into the sea due to erosion.
The lawsuit, which is being closely watched globally and could establish a domestic duty of care in Australia to protect communities threatened by climate change, was brought by traditional owners of islands in the Torres Strait, a stretch of water between Australian and Papua New Guinea.
The islanders want the federal government to be ordered to reduce carbon emissions and to protect the land and sea environment in the Torres Strait from climate change.
Australia plans to reach net-zero emissions by 2050,
Mr Paul Kabai, one of two elders who brought the case, has warned that most of the low-lying islands in the Torres Strait will be underwater by 2029.
He told the court in Saibai this week that climate change had altered the seasons and the agricultural land, upending the island’s traditional farming and hunting practices.
“It is now all changed because of climate change – these patterns are all mixed up,” Mr Kabai said.
Referring to recent rain, he added: “This is meant to be dry season, your honour, the patterns have all changed.”
The Torres Strait has about 274 islands, including some that are just 1m above sea level. Seventeen islands are inhabited, with a total population of about 4,500 people.
The residents once had ample local supplies of food such as crops and fish, but now depend on shipments of fruit, vegetables and other imported food.
In September 2022, the United Nations Human Rights Committee ruled that Australia had failed to adequately protect Torres Strait Islanders from climate change.
In a case that was based on Australia’s obligations under international law, eight adults and six children from four low-lying islands argued that changing weather patterns had damaged their livelihoods, culture and traditional way of life.
The committee ruled that Australia should compensate the islanders and take action to ensure they could survive on the islands.
Following this, the ruling Labor party promised to consider the ruling, but noted it had adopted tougher climate policies than the Liberal-National Coalition, which was in office when the case was brought in 2019.
Climate change lawsuits have been increasing around the world in recent years. A report released by British researchers in 2022 found that 1,200 climate-related cases were lodged globally between 2014 and 2022, compared with 802 from 1986 to 2014.
These 2002 cases were filed in 43 countries – including the United States, Britain, India, Indonesia, Brazil and South Africa – and 15 international courts.
The Torres Strait case is being supported by Grata Fund, an Australian non-government organisation that funds climate and human rights litigation, and the Urgenda Foundation, a Dutch environmental group.
Urgenda previously backed a historic case in the Netherlands in 2015 in which a court ruled that the government must protect its citizens in the face of climate change and must immediately reduce emissions.
Besides the hearings in Saibai, the federal court held hearings on two other islands, Boigu and Badu.
Ms McRose Elu, who was born in Saibai and attended the hearings this week, said she believed it was important for the judge to observe the effects of the changing weather patterns in recent years.
She said the island had been eroded by rising water levels, which had left the future of life on the island uncertain.
“Our island is made out of mud and mangroves, and through the years it has been inundated and eroded,” she told ABC News. “It has inundated all our garden patches, our adaptation, the hunting, the resting places of our loved ones. The whole island has been eroded and is not in a good condition.”
A decision in the case is not expected until 2024.
