Australia court admits first-ever UN environmental expert in natural gas site extension challenge News
RebeccaLintzPhotography / Pixabay
Australia court admits first-ever UN environmental expert in natural gas site extension challenge

The Federal Court of Australia has admitted a UN special rapporteur on human rights and environment as an intervenor in a judicial review case on a liquefied natural gas (LNG) operation site, according to a Friday press release. The admission marks the first time the court has allowed a UN environmental expert to assist it on international environmental law.

The Special Rapporteur on the human right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment, Astrid Puentes Riaño, confirmed that she will testify in the Australian court as amicus curiae, an intervenor with a strong interest in the matter. Riaño will advise the court on the applicable international law on assessing climate impact before authorizing any projects.

The statement mentioned the unanimous advisory opinion issued by the International Court of Justice last July. The court opined that assessing the risk of significant harm and exercising due diligence to avoid activities that cause significant damage to another state’s environment is a customary legal obligation on states, even if they have not signed any climate change treaties. Australia has voted in the UN General Assembly to support a resolution endorsing the court’s opinion on May 21.

“Advising States to help advance decisions based on international law and participating in priority legal cases aligns precisely with my mandate, as it was established by the Human Rights Council,” Riaño said in the statement.

In October, the Australian Conservation Foundation commenced a judicial review. It asserts that the country’s Environmental Minister Murray Watt has unlawfully approved the North West Shelf (NWS) Project’s operating life. Counsel for the advocacy group argues that Watt has wrongfully neglected the climate impact on the Dampier Archipelago and approved the project without ascertaining the scale of the pollution. The lawsuit also argues that Watt has wrongfully considered the economic benefit of another unapproved project to support the project’s approval.

In a parallel proceeding, Friends of Australian Rock Art challenged that Watt’s approval failed to consider the ongoing and irreversible damage to the Murujuga Cultural Landscape.

When approving the project’s extension for another 45 years in September 2025, Watt stated that he had imposed 48 strict conditions to mitigate the climate impact on the Murujuga rock art. One of the conditions requires that the operation site reduce 60 percent of its current gas emissions by 2030.

The NWS project is one of the largest LNG operation sites in the country, contributing $1.3 million USD to the Australian economy in 2024. According to a report prepared by the Australian Conservation Foundation that same year, the operation site’s lifetime emissions would be 13 times more than the country’s annual emissions from all sources.

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