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Bushfire victims launch legal action against EPA
Bushfire survivors have launched a legal challenge seeking to enforce the NSW Environment Protection Authority (EPA) to act on climate change to protect communities from catastrophic fires.
Tony Zhang
The case has been launched by the Environmental Defenders Office (EDO) on behalf of Bushfire Survivors for Climate Action, a group of Australians who had lost their homes to recent bushfires or been directly affected by worsening bushfire danger.
“Our clients have experienced the trauma of losing their communities, livelihoods and homes to bushfires. “Climate change is driving more frequent, severe bushfires in Australia, putting communities in danger,” he said.
The EDO’s case, brought on behalf of Bushfire Survivors for Climate Action will argue it is also required to do this by developing policies for the control of greenhouse gases, consistent with the science of climate change, under its own legislation, the Protection of the Environment Administration Act 1991 (PEOA Act).
The case alleges that the EPA has a statutory duty under the POEA Act to prepare objectives, guidelines and policies to ensure environmental protection and that it has breached that duty by failing to make policies that ensure a safe climate.
Bushfire Survivors for Climate Action says that failure to develop such policies constitutes a breach of the statutory duty owed by the EPA, and is now seeking orders from the Land and Environment Court by way of mandamus.
“Mandamus” is a particular type of order that may be made by a court against a public authority to direct it to perform a statutory duty.
Environmental protection authorities around Australia such as the EPA, have powers and responsibilities to manage pollutants, such as greenhouse gases, in order to protect our economies and communities and are the regulators of emissions in Australia.
However, there is no federal EPA and no independent federal agency has the same powers.
It is understood that the EPA’s functions include issuing licenses to authorise and control pollution. It has broad powers to ensure environmental protection, including the power to direct other public authorities in the exercise of their functions, and to put caps and prices on harmful pollutants.
Mr Morris said this case argues that it is impossible for the EPA to ensure environmental protection without regulating direct and indirect sources of greenhouse gases, consistent with the science of climate change.
Through this case the EDO seeks to empower the EPA to manage direct and indirect sources of greenhouse gas emissions from activities in NSW.
“Our client will argue that the EPA has a duty to use its existing powers to ensure local protection for the NSW community by regulating greenhouse gas emissions to levels consistent with a safe climate and global warming of 1.5°C or below,” Mr Morris said.
Jo Dodds, chair of Bushfire Survivors for Climate Action and a survivor of the 2018 Tathra fires, said that NSW communities faced devastating fire danger over summer, and urgently need state authorities to develop meaningful climate policies.
“As bushfire survivors we’ve experienced the devastating loss and trauma of catastrophic fires. We want to ensure that other communities don’t go through this, and we don’t want to go through it ourselves again – and that means urgently tackling climate change,” she said.
