Tide turning on government climate accountability

July 29, 2025

In 2013, Dutch environmental group Urgenda and 900 citizens sued their government to force stronger climate action. In 2019, the Dutch Supreme Court ruled the government had a legal duty to cut emissions by at least 25% by 2020, compared to 1990 levels.

Since then, similar attempts in Australia — by eight children and two Torres Strait Elders — have failed. In both cases, judges said it was for governments, not courts, to act.

But the legal tide may be turning. The International Court of Justice recently issued only its fifth-ever unanimous advisory opinion, declaring that all nations have “an obligation to prevent climate change and redress damage” caused by emissions.

And just last week, the NSW Court of Appeal overturned approval for MACH Energy’s Mount Pleasant coal mine expansion, ruling the project’s climate impacts — particularly “Scope 3 emissions” from burning exported coal — were not properly considered. While an appeal is likely, rulings like these, in Australia and abroad, are sending a clear message: governments and polluters must take climate impacts seriously. Courts may yet become a powerful lever in holding them to account.