Gudanji and Wakaya Traditional Owner Rikki Dank has stood alongside Greta Thunberg and frontline climate defenders from around the world at COP31, calling for governments to stop expanding fossil fuels and protect people and Country. 

Speaking at the UN climate summit in Türkiye today, Rikki called on Prime Minister Albanese to listen to people and communities on the frontlines of climate change at COP31 and beyond, stating “we’re right here”. 
 
This follows the Prime Minister’s COP31 address where he stated Australia took up the COP31 Presidency role “because we wanted to speak for the people of the world who wanted urgent action” on climate change. 

Rikki is one of the claimants behind The Hard Truths case, which is the first international legal claim brought against the Australian government for its responsibility for climate harm linked to its coal and gas exports.  

Rikki joined Greta Thunberg and frontline advocates from Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Palestine and Nepal at the press conference, bringing together communities confronting climate and environmental injustice around the world.   

Rikki brought a message from the Northern Territory, where her people are experiencing extreme heat and changing seasons while facing the expansion of the gas industry in the Beetaloo Basin. 

Rikki Dank, Gudanji and Wakaya Traditional Owner and Hard Truths case claimant, said: 

“My Country is being fracked, our drinking water poisoned and our history erased as we speak. 

“I'm here to voice my concerns, my clan's concerns, my nation's concerns and my grandmother's concerns." 

“Yesterday my Prime Minister said he wanted to speak for people of the world who need urgent action. Well, we're right here. We can speak for ourselves. I am here today to speak for my Country, my clan, my grandmothers, my daughter and my niece. 

“Our Prime Minister needs to stop speaking and start listening. Listen when we say no to fracking of our Country. Listen when we say no to them poisoning our drinking water and sacred sites. Listen when we say no to coal, gas and oil, no to exporting coal and gas and the climate harm the bring.  

“Listen to people and communities, and not big oil and gas. 

"It's becoming unbearably hot for my people. It's changing the seasons, how plants and animals act, and it's having a huge impact on family, culture and our non-human kin."  

Rikki also raised serious concerns about the safety of her family's drinking water and the impacts of fracking. 

"I don't want my family to drink poisoned water. I want the fracking to stop on our Country. We have never given consent. 

"Why is money more important than human lives? You can't drink gas. You can't drink money. And once our water is poisoned, where do we go?” 

Hannah White, Senior Lawyer, Environmental Justice Australia, said: 

“International law requires governments to protect people from foreseeable climate harm. That's at the heart of the case Rikki and nine other Australians have brought to the UN. 

“While Australia presides over global climate negotiations, it continues to approve new coal and gas projects at home. It still has no national roadmap to phase out fossil fuels, including exports. 

“Rikki and her fellow claimants are asking Australia to take responsibility for that harm – and to bring its decisions about fossil fuel expansion into line with its human rights obligations. Climate harm doesn’t stop at a border, and neither does Australia’s responsibility for it. 

“Communities across Australia, the Pacific and the world are experiencing increasingly extreme fires, floods, rising seas and killer heatwaves. Yet Australia continues to approve the climate pollution that’s costing lives and livelihoods.”  

ENDS 

Background: https://earthjustice.org/hardtruthscase/rikki-dank 

Media interviews available: Rikki Dank from COP31 in Türkiye; Hannah White, Senior Lawyer at Environmental Justice Australia. 

Photos and footage of Rikki Dank available here  

Media contact in Australia: Jessa Latona, 03 8341 3110, media@envirojustice.org.au   

Media contact in Türkiye: Tessa Fluence, WhatsApp +61 448 448 326