Climate Justice Legal Project

$40,000 | December 2022

What does the Climate Justice Legal Project Initiative do?

CJLP is a partnership between the Federation of Community Legal Centres, Environmental Justice Australia, and the Climate Council and is the first of its kind. They are working together because they believe the climate crisis brings into sharp focus the need to redesign laws, institutions, policies, and services so they work for all of us, and not just some of us. This includes empowering communities to create climate solutions that work for them and addressing economic insecurity, access to healthcare, child and elder care, gender discrimination and systemic racism.

The Climate Justice Legal Project (CJLP), over the next three years, will

• Build capacity and support community lawyers and organisations to identify and address the impacts of climate injustice

• Run litigation on behalf of individuals and communities experiencing climate harm to help shape legal and policy reform.

• Amplify the voices of individuals and communities with lived experience, to advocate for faster, fair, and more ambitious climate action.

Why is this work important?

The new Federal Parliament looks set to deliver improved action on climate, however, it is critical that the community holds them to account, particularly around climate justice.

Already, people across Victoria are experiencing the impacts of climate breakdown – but not evenly. Those who have contributed least to this crisis are already paying the highest price: like First Nations communities who have cared for Country for 65,000 years, despite mining corporations aggressively harming heritage and land.

People are living with polluted air and water, and overstretched health services. Communities are living with low wages and insecure work. Families are struggling to feed their kids while governments pursue policies that prioritise corporations over the wellbeing of people.

Small towns are trying to rebuild, having lost everything in floods and bushfires. Young people are inheriting an unstable world and facing an uncertain future. People are fighting relentlessly for what are basic human rights.

Too often, people in these communities cannot afford to weatherproof their homes or move to higher ground. And when disasters hit, they are more likely to be uninsured or turned away from the places that are supposed to help them.

Lawyers in community legal centres work every day with people experiencing climate injustice.

Often when people seek help at a community legal centre, what might initially look like an isolated legal issue – such as credit, housing, or debt matter – can be exacerbated by climate change.

This project exists believe these links between community legal problems and climate breakdown cannot be ignored, and in the context of rolling climate disaster events for local communities, we believe we can support better outcomes for people on the ground.

How is Groundswell supporting this work?

With Groundswell’s support, CJLP intends to:

• Train and support community lawyers to identify and address the impacts of climate injustice. Tracking trends in community legal centre data will inform public interest climate litigation, and in turn shape legal and policy reform.

• Identify issues with our current laws, services, and institutions – then act in the courts and before government and corporate decision-makers to drive faster, fair, and more ambitious policy that serves communities in a climate-impacted world.

• Support communities with legal support and advocate for better resources to build resilience and agency as they prepare for and respond to climate disasters.