International law researcher Keely Boom says governments and businesses which fail to act on climate change for future generations face increasing legal risk.
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Ms Boom, who lives in the Deua Valley, is executive officer of the international Climate Justice Program.
The Moruya High School 2000 dux provides strategic legal thinking on potential climate change litigation and law reform, particularly at the international level.
Ms Boom recently returned from a conference in America where 80 lawyers from 30 nations discussed climate litigation.
She said there was an international push for more state and corporate responsibility.
“There’s a lot of interest in litigation,” Ms Boom said.
“In America, there’s a lot of children who have brought cases, against both federal and state governments, for failing to protect the atmosphere for future generations.
“They’ve brought the case on the public trust doctrine, which is that there are certain aspects of the environment held in public trust by the government for future generations.
“These children’s lawyers are arguing the atmosphere is one of those things in a public trust and the government has a duty to protect it.”
In another case, a Peruvian farmer is suing a German energy company over the effects of climate change on his farm.
Ms Boom said there had been small wins in US climate litigation, but the field remained difficult.
“It’s quite similar to litigation that occurred around asbestos and tobacco,” she said.
“It takes a while to get successful cases, but there’s been an analysis that came out last year saying it’s more likely we’ll see successful cases in developed countries first, because the judges are not as embedded in the fossil-fuel economy and are more likely to take that step of finding liability.”
She said there was more evidence to support climate litigation.
“Climate science is developing and we’re starting to see more impacts,” she said.
“It’s becoming easier for people to start linking what’s occurring now to climate change.
“Although it can be difficult to link to a particular event, there has been a change in risk and it’s more likely this litigation will increase if governments fail to take action.”
Ms Boom topped the Eurobodalla in the HSC in 2000 with an ATAR of 99.55 per cent.