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“The risk of harm that the minister must take reasonable care to avoid is personal injury or death to the children arising from the emission of carbon dioxide from the burning of coal extracted from the extension project,” Bromberg said in the judgment.
Whitehaven declined to comment on the judgment. The producer’s shares closed 2.7% lower in Sydney trading.
It’s the latest legal challenge to the fossil fuel industry as climate campaigners seek to use courts to press companies to accelerate efforts to address global warming. A May ruling in The Hague ordered Royal Dutch Shell Plc to cut emissions faster than planned, and there are about 1,800 climate litigations pending around the world, according to Columbia Law School’s Sabin Center for Climate Change Law.