10 Australians Sue Australia at UN Over Fossil Fuel
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- Ten Australians have filed a complaint with the UN human rights committee alleging the Australian government violates their rights by supporting coal and gas exports, with backing from the Human Rights Law Centre, Environmental Justice Australia, and US-based Earthjustice.
- Brendon Donohue, a legally blind 33-year-old, was trapped alone in his Brisbane apartment for 10 days during February 2022 floods when the lift, intercom, and entrance shut down and he could not receive food.
- Jack Egan lost his Batemans Bay home on New Year's Eve 2019 to bushfires and was separated from his partner Cath for hours, later finding her on a nearby beach among survivors of the 34 who died that season.
- Mel Fisher, who lives in a brick public housing home in Adelaide's Elizabeth Vale with poor insulation and a tin roof, feared for her life during a heatwave last summer with nights above 34C that worsened her auto-inflammatory skin condition.
- Latisha Francis, a 25-year-old Ngarrindjeri, Kaurna and Narungga marine conservation student, described an unprecedented toxic algal bloom linked to sea temperature spikes that drove Indigenous families away from a coastline central to their culture.
- David Karoly, emeritus professor at the University of Melbourne and former IPCC lead author, said Australia "has to take responsibility for its emissions, whether it is domestic emissions or the larger emissions overseas after it exports coal and gas."
- The complaint follows the International Court of Justice advisory opinion that states have a legal obligation to prevent climate harm — Australia was one of 140 countries to back that ruling via UN resolution, and the committee's recommendations, if it rules favourably, would not be legally enforceable.
- Independent MP Zali Steggall said the case highlights a "glaring inconsistency" in policy: Australia is cutting domestic emissions while expanding support for fossil fuel exports, while London barrister Harj Narulla said Australia faces "a very, very challenging case to answer."
Why it matters: The complaint comes as Australia simultaneously pledges domestic emission cuts while expanding coal and gas exports — a contradiction Steggall calls a "glaring inconsistency." If the UN committee rules favourably, its recommendations are non-binding but would add international legal pressure on Australia's fossil fuel export policy, the same policy area where a federal court last year declined to hold the government liable for climate harm to Torres Strait Islanders.
