INCLO members stand for the protection of human rights against fossil fuel exports in Australia

Human rights organizations from Canada, Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Ireland, Kenya and South Africa stand for the protection of the public from the harms caused by fossil fuel exports. We believe Australia cannot claim to be a credible actor in the global climate fight while continuing to approve and subsidize new coal and gas export projects.

For these reasons, we support a claim recently presented to the UN Human Rights Committee by 10 Australian citizens who have suffered serious harm from climate disasters such as heatwaves, wildfires, and floods. The claimants are represented by INCLO member the Human Rights Law Centre, Environmental Justice Australia, and Earthjustice.

In their claim, known as “the Hard Truths case,” the claimants note that Australia is the world’s second-largest coal exporter and third-largest gas exporter, and that around 80% of the coal and gas mined in the country is sent overseas to be burned. Although the government has targets and policies to reduce domestic emissions, the claimants argue it has evaded responsibility for the pollution caused by its exports, which constitute its principal contribution to climate change.

On these grounds, they are asking the Committee to declare it is unlawful for Australia to continue approving and subsidizing new coal and gas projects for export without a plan to protect Australians from dangerous climate change. They are also asking the Committee to recommend that the Government pause approvals of new or expanded fossil fuel export projects until it develops a plan to reduce climate pollution consistent with limiting global temperature rise to 1.5°C.

According to Jack McLean, senior lawyer at the Human Rights Law Centre, the case is brought by ten Australians “who have been profoundly harmed by climate pollution – losing homes and loved ones to wildfires, being trapped and displaced by floods, hospitalised during extreme heat, and seeing Country and culture disrupted by rising seas and algal blooms. They are calling on the Government to confront the hard truth that those harms are fuelled by Australian coal and gas.”

This is the first claim filed with an international body against a state for climate harm since the International Court of Justice affirmed, in 2025, that all governments bear a legal obligation to address climate change. We believe the Australian government’s conduct must be consistent, both within and beyond its borders, with its international human rights obligations and with the commitments it has made across multilateral forums toward a just energy transition. Some of those commitments include:

Support for the ICJ Advisory Opinion. All states, including Australia, are legally obligated to apply their “highest possible ambition” in plans and policies to mitigate climate change, in line with the 1.5°C target. This was affirmed by the International Court of Justice in its 2025 Advisory Opinion. In May, Australia joined 140 other countries in passing a major UN resolution endorsing this landmark ruling.

The Belém Declaration. Australia was one of 24 countries to back the Belém Declaration on the Transition Away from Fossil Fuels at COP30. The declaration recognizes that the production, consumption, licensing, and subsidizing of fossil fuels -which the Australian Government continues to provide- are incompatible with the goal of limiting warming to 1.5°C.

The Santa Marta Conference. Australia was one of 57 countries to attend the First Conference on Transitioning Away from Fossil Fuels, where it voiced commitment to a just energy transition. “Now is not the time to hesitate. We must accelerate the rollout of renewable energy, energy storage, and electrification to decarbonize our economies,” said the government’s representative in a plenary session, highlighting Australia’s progress on renewables while omitting any mention of its persistent fossil fuel exports.

With this record of support for the global climate fight, Australia positions itself within what has been called the “coalition of the willing,” a group of countries committed to advancing a just transition away from fossil fuels as the first major step toward halting the climate crisis. However, its continued support for coal and gas export projects shows that the rhetoric is far from the reality. The Hard Truths case is an opportunity to set a precedent so that big polluters assume their full responsibility for their harm to human rights in the climate crisis. 

Signatories:

Canadian Civil Liberties Association (CCLA)

CELS (Argentina)

Conectas Direitos Humanos (Brazil)

Dejusticia (Colombia)

Irish Council for Civil Liberties (ICCL)

Kenya Human Rights Commission (KHRC)

Legal Resources Centre (LRC, South Africa)