Environment

Fiducian Investment Management has copped a $7.3 million penalty after admitting that it made misleading representations about the ESG credentials of an investment fund, despite senior execs being warned about its exposure to fossil fuels.

The judge overseeing the federal government’s $2 billion PFAS lawsuit against 3M is grappling with how to move the "daunting" case forward, warning the parties "we'll all be retired if not dead by the time it comes to trial".

A court has tossed a lawsuit by the Wilderness Society alleging NOPSEMA failed to ensure Santos has the financial means to decommission its Reindeer gas field off the coast of Karratha in Western Australia.

A native title group has won an appeal to the High Court over a 30-year licence granted by the Northern Territory government to Fortune Agribusiness to extract groundwater for irrigation on its property.

By the time Australia's emissions targets were set in 2015, the effects of climate change were already being felt in the Torres Strait, the Commonwealth has told an appeals court, saying a class action over Islanders' cultural loss can't prove causation.

The law of negligence should be expanded to recognise cultural loss as a compensable form of harm, a group of Torres Strait Islanders argue in challenging a ruling tossing their class action against the government.

Hotly contested political issues should not be considered a judicial "no-go zone" that leaves policy decisions on climate change outside the reach of the courts, a landmark class action has told an appeals court.

A local council can't prevent owners at three residential apartments from building a seawall at The Entrance to guard against damage from coastal erosion, with a judge finding the visual impact was limited to when the beach was fully eroded. 

Gas giant Woodside has hit back at claims by activist groups that the federal environment minister's department "negotiated" with the company ahead of approving a 40-year extension to its North West Shelf project.

Activist group Friends of Australian Rock Art have alleged environment and water minister Murray Watt "cherry picked" potential economic and social benefits of Woodside's North West Shelf project while ignoring the harms.