Tortious liability for greenhouse gas emissions? Climate change, causation and public policy considerations
Abstract
The purpose of this paper is to assess the potential legal issues in establishing liability for large-scale emitters of greenhouse gases, in Australia, for resulting harms caused from changes to the climate system. This paper assesses the legal principles and policy issues associated with potential negligence claims against industrial emitters in Australia such as large coal mines and coal-fired electricity plants. This paper identifies a range of significant obstacles in successfully bringing claims in negligence for climatic harms. These include issues in foreseeability, causation and the operation of public policy principles. It is concluded that the distribution of risk from climate change, and associated allocation of liability, is more appropriately addressed through consistent, national legislation rather than through the ad hoc adaptation of the common law.
Published
Dec 1, 2007
How to Cite
DURRANT, Nicola.
Tortious liability for greenhouse gas emissions? Climate change, causation and public policy considerations.
QUT Law Review, [S.l.], v. 7, n. 2, dec. 2007.
ISSN 2201-7275.
Available at: <https://lr.law.qut.edu.au/article/view/142>. Date accessed: 01 feb. 2021.
doi: https://doi.org/10.5204/qutlr.v7i2.142.
Section
Emerging Scholars' Section
Since 2015-12-04
Abstract Views
1753
PDF Views
1813
Until 2015-12-04:
Abstract Views
740
PDF Views
1010
Authors who publish with this journal retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License (CC-BY) that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
Articles in this journal are published under the Creative Commons Attribution Licence (CC-BY). This is to achieve more legal certainty about what readers can do with published articles, and thus a wider dissemination and archiving, which in turn makes publishing with this journal more valuable for authors.
