Link to Article: “Australia court overturns landmark climate ruling”
The Australian court overturned a ruling which would require the Australian environment minister, Sussan Ley, to take into account the harm climate change poses to children when giving approval to fossil fuel operations.
The ruling, which has now been overturned, stated that the minister has to “avoid causing personal injury or death (to those under 18) due to emissions of CO2 into the Earth’s atmosphere when considering such projects.” The ruling was appealed by Sussan Ley, and the courts approved the appeal under the argument that there was only a small increase in risk.
This decision faced major backlash, especially from the youth of Australia, with many attempting to appeal the case to Australia’s highest court level.
Australia has recently faced many climate change-related disasters. From the bushfires that set the country on fire to the floods that are now sending it underwater, it is unfortunate that the government is turning a blind eye to these issues, and the potential harm that they can cause to the people and wildlife of Australia.
This is a common trend in many nations. Current legislators often ignore climate issues, leading to the increase of greenhouse gas emissions that will leave future generations to deal with the tragedies it causes. It is extremely unfortunate that the government continues to favor industries over the wellbeing of its citizens and environment because someday, there won’t be a choice. If we don’t have a liveable environment, there will be no industry to be had.
Obviously, this doesn’t occur overnight, but governments, specially developed states such as Australia, really should begin considering the risks of climate change when weighing in on decisions regarding fossil fuel projects. For now, it looks like Australia has left the issue to its younger generations to face.
This reflects a little bit of the common goods issue. Although the article doesn’t directly address any foreign nation’s policies on the matter, we can assume that the effects of climate change will be felt around the world, therefore it is a global issue. In this case, Australia has chosen not to sacrifice its own national interest (involvement in economically beneficial fossil fuel operations) to lessen the risk of climate change effects. Climate change is a major common goods problem, and if nations continue to choose their own interests over the benefit of the whole world, the issue is only going to worsen, and eventually won’t be repairable at all.