A group of Australians have taken the unprecedented step of accusing their own government of violating their human rights by continuing to export coal and gas, and are asking the United Nations to intervene.
The ten litigants say their lives have been directly harmed by extreme weather across Australia – bushfires, floods, heatwaves, rising sea levels and toxic algal blooms – and blame the government's ongoing support of fossil fuel companies. It is the first legal claim brought to an international body or court since the International Court of Justice ruled in 2025 that countries can be sued over climate change.
“Australians accuse government of violating human rights by exporting coal and gas, in first UN claim since landmark ICJ ruling.”
Among those making the claim is Dr Barry Traill, a wildlife ecologist and volunteer firefighter. In 2009, several of his friends died during the devastating Black Saturday bushfires in Victoria, despite being prepared and experienced. "That deeply changed me," Traill said. "It became clear that the old rules around fires and survival no longer applied."
By 2019, he was on the frontlines battling severe blazes in Queensland during the so-called Black Summer fires. There, he saw that climate change was not a future problem. "It is already killing people and hurting lives, landscapes and communities across Australia," he said. "Continuing to allow coal and gas companies to increase pollution, while people face worsening disasters, is a profound failure of responsibility."
Brendon Donohue has also joined the legal claim. He described being trapped in his home for 10 days in 2022 when floods in Brisbane damaged the power supply of his apartment block, leaving lifts, intercom and exits inaccessible. "Because I live with blindness and mobility challenges, climate impacts affect me differently and can make everyday life much harder to navigate safely," he said.
Another litigant is Prof Anne Poelina, an Indigenous woman from the Kimberley region in Western Australia. She describes being displaced from the area around the Fitzroy River, one of the state's most important waterways, because of catastrophic flooding. "When the river is healthy, our people are healthy," she said. "When the river suffers, our people suffer." She added: "What concerns me most is the intergenerational loss of cultural knowledge," as "so much of our knowledge is not written down" but passed on by being physically present on the land.
Any decision by the UN is not legally binding, but Australia – one of the world's largest coal and gas exporters – would be expected to respond. The BBC has contacted Environment Minister Murray Watt for comment.