By Miki Perkins

Melbourne: Anjali Sharma first felt a sick sense of climate-related dread in the pit of her stomach when she was a primary school student.

Keen to find out more about climate change, the 16-year-old watched an online video that warned Earth only had eight years before it reached a tipping point, triggering an irreversible chain of environmental damage.

She watched other videos too, about the science of climate change and the difference between 1 and 2 degrees of global warming.

It dawned on her what this meant for her extended family in India, farmers who relied on monsoon rains and a stable climate for their livelihoods.

“It made me so incredibly scared,” said the year 11 student, who studies at the Huntingtower School in Melbourne’s east and is involved with the environment action group School Strike for Climate.

“I used to deal with so much climate anxiety and fear, thinking, ‘Wow, we are one day closer to that deadline.’ ”

“I used to deal with so much climate anxiety and fear.”

Now she is the lead claimant in a group of eight teenagers from across Australia driving a landmark class action that begins in the Federal Court in Melbourne on Tuesday.

The teenagers are supported by 86-year-old Brigidine nun Sister Brigid Arthur, who is acting as their “litigation guardian” because they are under 18.

They are challenging the federal Minister for the Environment, Sussan Ley, to protect young people from climate change and the future harms of coal mining.

The five-day trial will determine the future of the proposed Vickery open-cut coal mine extension in NSW. The proposal would increase the mine’s coal production by about 25 percent and emissions by 100 million tons of greenhouse gases over its lifetime. The coal would be exported.

More significantly, if successful, the case could set a national legal precedent to stop government approval of new fossil fuel projects because of their potential to harm future generations.

The case – Anjali Sharma and others versus Minister for Environment – was first filed on September 8, 2020. At a scheduled November hearing, the minister agreed not to take a decision on the Vickery project until after the full trial.

Principal lawyer David Barnden from Equity Generation Lawyers, which is acting for the group, described the case as public interest litigation, saying politicians and other people in power have specific rights and responsibilities to protect vulnerable people.

“We are asking the court to recognize that the Environment Minister has a duty to protect younger people from the impacts of future climate harm. It’s the first time the court has been asked to recognize such a duty,” he said.

Sister Brigid, a teacher for many years, said she wanted to give young people the opportunity to make change, and she was struck by the teenagers’ passion for the world and their future.

She works extensively with asylum seekers and has previously acted as a litigation guardian for young asylum seekers or others unable to represent themselves in court.

“I’m very conscious of what the world will be when I’m dead and gone if we don’t take real climate action now, not just words or timelines for the future,” she said.

A spokesperson for the Environment Minister said the government would not comment while the matter was before the courts.

Source: smh.com.au