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The Federal Court of Appeal has today (15 March 2022) overturned a ground-breaking decision in the environment and climate sector. The original decision held that the Commonwealth Minister for Environment owed a common law duty of care to the under 18 Australian population to take reasonable care to avoid causing personal injury or death resulting from Australian carbon dioxide emissions. Today, the Full Federal Court in Minister for the Environment v Sharma [2022] FCAFC 35 overturned that decision and unanimously denied that such a duty of care should be imposed on the Minister. This judgement will have consequences on negligence and liability claims in environment and climate law as well as intergenerational equity obligations.
Given that in some jurisdictions tortious claims in relation to climate change have also been brought against companies, the Court's decision not to accept this duty of care may reduce the risks faced by corporates in relation to such claims. Whilst some of the reasons for rejecting the duty of care were specific to the Minister's position, some of the reasons, such as lack of control, lack of proportionality and reasonable foreseeability, could be equally relevant in claims against corporates. However, companies should be aware that interested parties also may have other legal options to pursue climate change actions, particularly using the statutory misleading and deceptive conduct provisions where companies make representations in relation to their environmental credentials and forecasts.
While the decision of the Federal Court was unanimous, each judge put forward different reasoning as to why the duty of care under the EPBC Act should not be imposed.
The child-plaintiffs now have 28 days from today (15 March 2022) to apply for special leave to the High Court to appeal this decision. The number of cases that are accepted for special leave is very low. In saying this, the test under s 35A of the Judiciary Act 1903 (Cth) to determine whether a case is eligible to be granted special leave includes cases that present a question of law that is of public importance.
Thank you to Tara Hartmann for her assistance in preparing this alert.
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