Australia’s Federal Court has ruled that the national government owes no legal duty to protect the Torres Strait Islands or their Indigenous inhabitants from the effects of climate change, in a landmark judgment that campaigners say exposes critical gaps in the country’s legal framework.
Justice Michael Wigney dismissed the claim brought by two Torres Strait Islander elders, Paul Kabai and Pabai Pabai, who argued that the federal government had been negligent in failing to cut carbon emissions or take meaningful adaptation measures to safeguard their ancestral lands.
