Overview

• Justice Michael Wigney dismissed the 2021 duty-of-care suit brought by Uncle Paul Kabai and Uncle Pabai Pabai, ruling the Commonwealth government has no legal obligation to prevent climate change harms under negligence law.
• Evidence presented during on-country hearings and in Melbourne showed sea levels rising at twice the global rate, coastal erosion, soil salinity and the destruction of ancestral graves undermining the islands’ habitability.
• Wigney accepted that Australia’s greenhouse gas targets between 2015 and 2021 disregarded the best available science but insisted that setting emissions goals is a political question for Parliament.
• The plaintiffs and their supporters pledged to continue campaigning for stronger national emissions cuts and federal funding for adaptation measures despite the ruling.
• Financed by the Grata Fund and modelled on the Dutch Urgenda case, the challenge highlights evolving debates on indigenous rights and could shape future global climate litigation.