Climate change is a human rights issue

June 4, 2025

Julian Cribb is right to frame the provisional approval of the North West Shelf Extension in human rights terms. The project will add another 4.3 billion tonnes of carbon emissions to the atmosphere in the next 45 years, substantially adding to global warming and consequent extreme weather events.

This will have flow-on effects with respect to health and particularly food production, not least through seas flooding the major food producing deltas of the world. These include the Mekong delta in Vietnam which is a mere 84cms above current sea-level. If sea levels rise to between one and two metres by centuries end as anticipated, it will mean the end of all food production on the delta.

The story will be repeated in other deltas like the Nile and Ganges/Brahmaputra. Chaos is likely to ensue as people fight over food and fresh water.

Let’s just hope Environment Minister Murray Watt stops short and blocks final approval of the NW Shelf extension, not just for all the threatened species around Scott Reef where the next lot of mining for gas will take place, but for all humans around the world.