Climate litigation

There are six case studies of climate litigation available here:

• The Hazelwood Power Station Case involved a judicial review proceeding in the Victorian Civil & Administrative Tribunal challenging the failure to consider greenhouse gas emissions when approving expansion of a coal mine to supply the Hazelwood Power Station in Victoria. It was one of the first climate change cases in Australia.

• The Wildlife Whitsunday Case involved a judicial review application in the Federal Court of Australia against two decisions under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (Cth) concerning the greenhouse emissions from the mining, transport and use of coal from two large coal mines.

• The Xstrata Newlands Coal Mine Case involved an objection by a conservation group to the grant of a mining lease for coal mining in the Queensland Land & Resources Tribunal. The objection was based on the adverse impacts of greenhouse emissions from the mining, transport and use of coal from a proposed coal mine expansion.

• The Sonoma Coal Mine Case involved a second objection to the grant of a mining lease for coal mining in the Queensland Land & Resources Tribunal. The conservation group consented to the case ending to concentrate on the Xstrata Newlands Coal Mine Case.

• The Anvil Hill Case involved an application for judicial review in the Federal Court of Australia against a decision under the EPBC Act concerning greenhouse gas emissions from a large coal mine in New South Wales, known as the Anvil Hill Project.

• The Wandoan Coal Mine Case involves a current objection to a major new open-cut coal mine proposed to operate for 30 years in Queensland that will produce 1.3 billion tonnes of greenhouse gases.