Bushfire Survivors for Climate Action Inc v Environment Protection Authority

COURT OR TRIBUNAL

New South Wales Land and Environment Court

DATE FILED (OR FIRST HEARING DATE)

08/04/2020

LITIGATION TYPE

Constitutional and Human Rights / State Accountability

SUBJECT MATTER

Statutory Duty

REVIEW TYPE

N/A

SUMMARY

(Excerpt from judgment) [1] On 26 October 2020, I made orders granting leave for the Applicant in these Class 4 proceedings, Bushfire Survivors for Climate Action Inc (Bushfire Survivors), to file and serve expert evidence from Professor Penny Sackett, a climate scientist at the Australian National University in Canberra. [2] These reasons for decision explain why I was satisfied that such leave should be granted. They also set out the process by which the specific topics for which I have given leave were refined from the significantly broader, and much less focused, scope for which Bushfire Survivors had originally made application.

The Court ordered: (1) The Environment Protection Authority, in accordance with s 9(1)(a) of the Protection of the Environment Administration Act 1991 (NSW), is to develop environmental quality objectives, guidelines and policies to ensure environment protection from climate change. (2) The respondent is to pay the applicant’s costs of the proceedings.

On 8 September, the EPA released its draft Climate Change Policy and Action Plan for public comment: https://www.epa.nsw.gov.au/news/media-releases/2022/epamedia220908-epa-releases-climate-change-policy-and-action-plan

CASE DOCUMENTS

Bushfire Survivors for Climate Action Inc v Environment Protection Authority [2020] NSWLEC 152
Bushfire Survivors for Climate Action Incorporated v Environment Protection Authority [2021] NSWLEC 92