Nicholas Petrie

The Commonwealth says a landmark ruling in a class action that found it has a duty of care to protect Australian children from the effects of global warming is “incoherent” and distorts its ability to balance competing interests.

The federal Minister for the Environment has lost a bid to declass a class action brought over climate change risks from an expansion of the Whitehaven coal mine, with a judge making a declaration that the government owes a duty to all Australian children to protect them from global warming.