EJA Annual Report
Accessible version for screen readers
Using the law for justice, people and planet
Acknowledgement of Country
We acknowledge the Awabakal, Bunurong, Dja Dja Wurrung, Gadigal, Punnilerpanner, Taungurung, Wadawurrung and Wurundjeri peoples, the Traditional Owners of the lands on which our team live and where the EJA office is located.
We pay our respects to Elders past and present and recognise that this land always was and always will be Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander land because sovereignty has never been ceded.
We acknowledge the role of the legal system in establishing, entrenching and continuing the oppression and injustice experienced by First Nations people. We also acknowledge that the law has been an avenue for resistance and a critical framework of action for First Nations justice. It is an inherently complex space; we seek to contribute to using and developing laws in ways that lay foundations for just outcomes for First Nations people across the continent.
WARNING: This document may contain images or names of people who have passed away.
No matter who we are, where we live, where we have come from or how much we earn, we all deserve a healthy environment, a stable climate and a say in the decisions that affect us.
Environmental justice is the fair treatment and meaningful involvement of all people in the development, implementation and enforcement of environmental laws, regulations and policies, regardless of their race, ethnicity or nationality, where they live or how much they earn.
It means we all have clean air and water, healthy forests and flourishing biodiversity, and homes free from toxic pollution – through sustainable management, protection and regeneration of our environment.
Together, we are advocating for healthier, empowered communities, thriving ecosystems, access to justice for all, and legal recognition for First Nations people in their vital role protecting Country.
A MESSAGE FROM OUR ACTING CHAIR AND CO-CEOS
We Are In This Together
Change often takes longer than you think. You push. You wait. You sweat. You despair. But then things happen suddenly, when you don’t expect them, and in ways you never imagined.
In May, when the news broke of a historic decision for Victoria – the end of native forest logging! – we were elated. Even the most serious of EJA’s lawyers were dancing. For more than 30 years, we have fought to protect our native forests and all of the creatures and people who call them home. Together with our clients, citizen scientists, fellow campaigners and communities, we’ve investigated. Exposed. Organised. Advocated. Litigated. And won.
Community actions in the courtroom halted logging operations in large swathes of East Gippsland and the Central Highlands. Holding VicForests to account in court for their unlawful logging was the final straw for a destructive industry. From 2024, 1.8 million hectares of forest will be protected from logging for generations to come. Of course, there are communities to support, logging loopholes to close, and a lot of damage to regenerate. But it’s an astonishing relief to write this.
For all of us at EJA, it’s also been a year of firsts. We launched our first case in the Northern Territory, to halt the cotton industry’s plans to bulldoze vast parts of the world’s largest intact tropical savanna. Our Clean Air and Coal Pollution team successfully made our federal Environment Minister scrutinise Engie’s ‘pit lake’ rehabilitation plans for Hazelwood mine in Victoria’s Latrobe Valley – the first time the water trigger from the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation (EPBC) Act has ever been applied to a mine rehab project. This important precedent means operators of end-of-life coal mines cannot just walk away from toxic sites without scrutiny. Meanwhile, our First Nations program continues to work with an ever-expanding number of partners, advancing legal pathways for Traditional Owners to care for Country. Our client’s landmark Living Wonders climate legal intervention is also one of firsts. Thanks to our client, the Environment Council of Central Queensland (ECoCeQ), Australia’s federal Environment Minister agreed for the first time in history to reconsider the climate impact of new coal and gas projects. However, Minister Plibersek soon refused to act on the overwhelming weight of scientific
evidence submitted by our client. Despite the Minister accepting our client’s argument that she must consider the impact of climate harm from coal and gas across the country, she ultimately decided the climate harm that would result from these projects did not change her predecessor’s risk assessment. Our courageous client is now taking the Minister and two fossil fuel giants, Whitehaven Coal and MACH Energy Australia, to court – the first legal challenge of new coal and gas decisions by this government.
Behind the scenes at EJA, we’re tracking our impact using our newly developed Monitoring and Strategic Learning Framework. This vital tool will provide valuable evidence and insights to drive strategic decision-making and ongoing improvement, which in turn will lead to greater impact and effectiveness. We have grown our staff team, our premises and our endowment fund, and developed our leaders. Finally, Lane Crockett has decided to step down as Chair after three-and-a-half years at the helm. Lane has made an enormous contribution over a time of huge growth and change for EJA. His unerring support of our Co-CEO model, leadership and guidance have been such a gift.
We would also like to thank you – and everyone who is part of the EJA cosmos. To all of the people across this continent who so generously give their time, money, ideas and energy. All of our clients and partners, allies and friends. All of the people who tirelessly push and wait. Sweat and despair. And then dance.
The law is a powerful tool, and we’re using it, together, to create a future that’s even better than we can imagine.
Thanks for being part of this,
Elizabeth McKinnon and Nicola Rivers, Co-CEOs
Tony Kelly, Acting Board Chairperson
Who we are and how we work
Environmental Justice Australia is a national not-for-profit legal organisation. We use the law to empower communities, protect and regenerate nature, safeguard our climate and ensure justice is at the heart of this continent.
Our team has some of the best lawyers and campaigners in the country.
Together we litigate. We advocate. We collaborate. For more than 30 years, we have used a powerful combination of litigation and legal advocacy to deliver long-lasting protections for nature and community. We are proudly non-profit, non-government and funded by donations from the community.
Our vision
A legal system that delivers environmental justice for communities and protects and regenerates nature. This looks like an Australia where:
- First Nations people lead and are recognised for their vital role in protecting Country.
- Communities are empowered to participate in decision-making and have access to justice.
- Our laws, policies and institutions enable people and nature to thrive, today and tomorrow.
Our values
AMBITION
We aim high and always focus on achieving maximum impact for communities, nature and our climate.
COLLABORATION
We work in partnership with the community and other organisations because we are stronger together.
RESPECT
We treat everyone with respect and value different perspectives as we know we all hold a piece of the puzzle.
POSITIVITY
We stay hopeful and seek solutions because we believe a better tomorrow is possible.
JUSTICE
We keep justice at the core of everything we do so no-one is left behind, as our struggles are interconnected and we can only solve them together.
We believe the legal system should deliver environmental justice for communities.
How we deliver environmental justice
Our legal system does not currently deliver environmental justice, protect our environment or safeguard the systems we all depend upon
Our team has some of the best lawyers and campaigners in the country.
The impact of environmental harm is not felt evenly across society. Too often the law gives privileged groups special treatment and a bigger say and denies nature and affected communities a voice.
We seek to change this by targeting the laws themselves, the way they are made and how they are applied and enforced by our governments and courts. To drive this, we support individuals and communities to use the law to defend their health and stand up for the people, ecosystems and wildlife they love. This means leveraging the legal and political systems to amplify voices not often heard, and ensuring that the judicial system respects, values and enforces the rights of all people and all living things.
To achieve this, Environmental Justice Australia’s expert legal strategists wield the power of the law and the strength of partnership to deliver environmental justice where it has the most impact.
OUR FOCUS AREAS
Clean Air and Coal Pollution: We empower communities experiencing environmental harm from coal pollution to seek justice.
First Nations: We provide legal support to First Nations people caring for Country.
Ecosystems: We use the law to protect and regenerate vital ecosystems on the brink of collapse.
Climate: We run public interest litigation and legal interventions to put justice at the heart of climate action.OUR
TOOLS
We empower communities to access our legal system and advocate for justice.
We hold the powerful to account via the courts and community campaigns.
We fix flaws in our legal system, changing the way laws are made and enforced.
Our theory of change
Ultimate outcomes
Communities are active and empowered agents in the protection of people and planet.
Existing laws
and policies are fully
utilised to protect
people and planet.
Companies act
in ways that reduce
harm to people
and planet
Stronger and
better laws and
policies to protect
people and planet.
INTERMEDIATE outcomes
More people
participate in EJA
campaigns and
actions.
Legal precedents
are established
that protect people
and planet.
Government
and corporate
decision-makers
are held to account
Political and
government decision-makers reform laws
and policies in favour of people and planet
INFLUENCING STRATEGIES
ENGAGE
Existing and
potential supporters
engagement
through targeted
communications,
events and media
ACTIVATE & EMPOWER COMMUNITIES
Support partner
organisations and
building communities’
capacity to use
democratic and legal
processes.
INTERVENE DIRECTLY
Through law
reform campaigns
and the use of
available legal
mechanisms.
Clean air and coal pollution
We envision empowered communities free from toxic air pollution and justly transitioned to a sustainable future. That is why EJA supports communities to participate, advocate and litigate for real pollution controls and to protect their regions from destructive industries.
This year's highlights
- Water trigger applied to the Hazelwood mine rehabilitation (VIC)
- Ended an unlawful air pollution exemption that allowed Vales Point Power Station (NSW) to emit toxic pollution above the legal limit
- Built community power, with more than 1,300 people participating in local matters
‘The communities that have powered our homes, schools and offices for decades deserve a future free from the health and environment impacts of toxic coal pollution.’
Ally McAlpine, EJA Senior Lawyer
A toxic pit lake
When we heard Engie, operator of the former Hazelwood mine, was planning to flood the disused mine with billions of litres of water from local waterways in the Latrobe Valley to ‘rehabilitate’ the site, we were concerned.
We commissioned two independent reports that found Engie was pursuing the cheapest option – and in doing so, would leave behind a giant toxic pit lake, risking contamination for decades to come.
We supported community groups to participate in the Environment Effects Statement scoping consultation and facilitated 145 submissions against this ill-conceived plan.
After significant community pressure, the federal government enacted the ‘water trigger’ under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation (EPBC) Act.
This is the first time the water trigger has been applied in a mine rehab project and will mean Engie’s plan to use 638 billion litres of water to fill the mine will be further scrutinised.
The Victorian coal pollution case
In October, we represented the not-for-profit group Environment Victoria in the Supreme Court of Victoria against the state’s Environment Protection Authority (EPA) and three of Australia’s biggest energy companies: AGL, EnergyAustralia and Alinta.
This landmark case was the first to test Victoria’s key climate change legislation, the Climate Change Act 2017, and the first to challenge the regulation of air pollution from Victoria’s coal-burning power stations.
To our disappointment, and to the despair of our client and the wider community, the court found the EPA’s decision not to limit greenhouse gas emissions or set proper restrictions on toxic pollution from power stations was legally valid. This has renewed calls for the laws to be fixed and focused significant media attention on how Victoria’s climate and environmental laws are not currently working to protect communities and the climate.
We know that the tides are turning for energy companies and their regulation in Australia. This case and those like it play a significant role in changing the landscape.
The right to breathe clean air
Communities who live near coal-fired power stations experience an enormous health burden from air pollution. The National Pollutant Inventory (NPI) is Australia’s annual toxic pollution report. Our analysis of the 93 toxic substances self-reported by coal-fired power stations in the 2021–2022 NPI reporting period uncovered that although power stations are producing less electricity, the release of most toxic pollutants is getting worse. This includes higher levels of mercury, PM2.5 and PM10 particle pollution and sulfur dioxide. Breathing in these invisible killers – or eating food contaminated with them – can lead to a lifetime of health complications.
These pollutants cause serious harm, yet Vales Point Power Station in Lake Macquarie, NSW, held an exemption that allowed it to exceed limits on air pollution – until EJA intervened. Our team made several submissions to the EPA, ratcheted up pressure through media coverage and was the subject of questions by Greens MP Abigail Boyd in NSW budget estimates. The exemption was eventually withdrawn, leaving local communities with cleaner air to breathe and fewer toxins in their lungs.
Waste pollution, an uncomfortable problem
Pollution comes in many forms – and more and more we are looking at difficult, uncomfortable problems in relation to our pollution and waste crises. Problems like poor water quality, arising from airborne vehicle emissions pollution, are poorly regulated and growing at an unrelenting pace. An equally pressing issue is that of plastics pollution. We have partnered with NGOs and citizen scientists to develop a legal strategy concerning this ubiquitous threat to the health of people and nature, while also exploring the waste-to-energy sector, pesticides and agricultural chemicals, urban air pollution and per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS). We are committed to increasing community capacity to engage with the law so that pollution controls are strengthened.
Galvanising community groups to fight for environmental justice
Community partnership is at the core of our work. This year we helped more than 1,300 community members flex their democracy muscles on seven local matters. Through submission writing, putting forward public comments, signing open letters and drafting emails to appropriate authorities, communities who experience the brunt of air pollution stood up for their right to breathe clean air and made their voices heard.
We continued to support and mobilise concerned groups and citizens to stand up for their communities and environment by making the law more accessible to them. In Victoria, we co-authored a submission with Environment Victoria and facilitated 70 community submissions on AGL’s Loy Yang mine development licence application.
This pressure led to the EPA requesting that AGL address community and technical concerns.
In NSW, we supported community groups making public submissions as part of the Chain Valley Environmental Impact Statement process. More than 80 submissions were received citing concerns about the mine expansion. The volume of submissions triggered a referral to the Independent Planning Commission which has since asked the proponent, Delta Coal, to produce additional studies into subsidence impacts. The project is now on hold pending this review.
Ecosystems
We aim to secure meaningful protections that allow nature to thrive while curbing extinction and ecosystem collapse.
That is why EJA is focused on using the law to protect and regenerate key ecosystems on the brink of collapse.
This year's highlights
- The end of native forest logging in Victoria
- Launched legal interventions against land clearing in the Northern Territory
- Conclusion of our three-and-a-half-year Bushfires case
- Increased scrutiny of four projects to artificially engineer Murray River floodplains
‘The biodiversity on our continent is like nowhere else on Earth. We must urgently protect and regenerate our life-giving ecosystems.’
Ellen Maybery – EJA Senior Specialist Lawyer and Ecosystems Lead
Protecting Victoria's native forests
Forest litigation was a key factor in the ending native forest logging in Victoria – something we are proud to have had a part in. Our long-running Bushfires case, representing volunteer-run grassroots organisation Wildlife of the Central Highlands (WOTCH), wrapped in March with a five-day hearing in the Supreme Court. This brought to an end a mammoth three-and-a-half years of protracted legal action. The legal challenge sought to prevent VicForests from logging areas of unburnt habitat for threatened species in the wake of the devastating 2019–2020 bushfire season, which saw vast swathes of Victorian forests – and millions of animals – wiped out.
Our client argued that logging in bushfire-affected areas is unlawful where threatened species have been sighted or their habitat exists. We secured injunctions over the lifetime of the case which halted logging in several important areas of forest. These protections remain in place while we await the judge’s decision.
In announcing the end of native forest logging by 1 January 2024, the Victorian government stated that ‘increasingly severe bushfires, prolonged legal action and court decisions’ have starved the state of native timber supply. This is a direct reference to our WOTCH v VicForests case and the many other cases brought by other forest groups against VicForests that contributed to native forest logging in the east of the state grinding to a standstill.
While the end of native forest logging is an extraordinary win for our forests, we’ve seen concerning shifts in the law and the rights of people to stand up for our environment. Just days prior, harsh new penalties came into effect that could impact citizen scientists’ ability to enter forests to survey for threatened species. These new penalties include fines of up to $21,000 or 12 months in jail. EJA lawyers and our partners at Lawyers for Forests subsequently produced the Legal Guide for Forest Protectors, explaining what the new laws mean, and we continued to provide legal education and representation for forest defenders. Over the course of the year, our lawyers represented and advised 14 clients in relation to matters under the existing laws. No convictions were recorded for any of our brave clients, with one judge stating, ‘I respect entirely your motivation [for entering a logging coupe out of concern for wedge-tail eagles in the area].
‘Victoria’s forests are the lungs of regional communities, provide homes for threatened wildlife and are critically important carbon sinks.’
Nicola Rivers, EJA Co-CEO
Challenging land clearing
In February, EJA filed a novel case in the Supreme Court of the Northern Territory on behalf of our client, Environment Centre NT (ECNT). ECNT was challenging a decision of the Pastoral Land Board to grant a permit to a multinational company to clear 923 hectares of savanna woodlands at Auvergne Station, including for cotton cropping trials. Before we even made it to court, the company asked to have their own permit revoked and we successfully prevented this land from destruction. This legal action helped raise the profile of land clearing in the only jurisdiction in Australia without specific native vegetation laws and put the cotton industry and lawmakers on notice.
We also attended to various other land clearing matters over the course of the year. This included scrutinising other land clearing proposals submitted to the Pastoral Land Board, as well as correspondence with Minister Plibersek on behalf of ECNT in relation to the impacts of Defence Housing Australia’s proposed development at Lee Point in Darwin on endangered Gouldian finches.
‘Land clearing is skyrocketing in the Northern Territory, spurred in part by the cotton industry’s huge expansion plans.’
Kirsty Howey, ECNT Executive Director
Restoring floodplain ecosystems
This year we represented our client, Environment Victoria, in hearings about the Victorian Murray Floodplain Restoration Project (VMFRP). VMFRP proposes to artificially engineer natural floodplains along the Murray River through levees, regulators, banks and pumps, with nine areas earmarked.
Our lawyers participated in lengthy Environment Effects Statement and Environment Report hearings for the Hattah North, Belsar-Yungera, Nyah and Vinifera projects.
This included interrogating the plans, making submissions and cross-examining experts. We prepared many written submissions to challenge these projects. We argued the projects seek to justify less water for the environment, fail to assess the impact of the project on the function of the ecosystem and neglect the impacts of climate change.
These four projects are now passing through relevant assessment processes. EJA continues to contribute to protecting and regenerating Murray-Darling ecosystems by working with our clients and partners to critique and challenge policy decisions and explore novel legal actions.
Of national importance
Our state- and territory-based work was complemented by acting on nationally important matters relating to ecosystems.
We contributed regularly to media, policy papers, meetings and submissions, including as part of the Places You Love Alliance, in relation to once-in-a-generation federal environmental law reform and the Nature Repair Market Bill
First Nations justice
We are sharing our legal expertise with Traditional Owner clients and partners to improve legal and policy frameworks to exercise their sovereign authority and knowledge to protect and care for Country. With our Traditional Owner partners, we identify innovative pathways to achieve justice.
This year's highlights
- Expanding partnerships with Traditional Owner groups
- Delivering innovative cultural burning legal advice
- Acting against racial vilification over protection of Country
Land and water justice
EJA has expanded and deepened our relationships with Traditional Owners in Victoria. Building on our relationships with Murray Lower Darling Rivers Indigenous Nations and Tati Tati Kaiejin, we continued to advise on engaging with and navigating legal structures to
implement cultural flows for a significant wetland site on the Murray River (Margooya Lagoon, near Robinvale). Cultural flows return water and its rights and management to Traditional Owners to improve the spiritual, cultural, natural, environmental, social, and economic conditions of their Nations. We are working with Tati Tati to advance their interests as water and public land managers, ultimately seeking arrangements that give effect to cultural flows on this Country.
We prepared detailed, innovative legal opinion on cultural fire management and burning operations in Victoria on behalf of another Aboriginal corporation client. Several Aboriginal corporations in Victoria are actively engaged in fire management.
In a confusing legal space, clear and considered legal advice on Aboriginal Traditional Owner rights is essential to effective Traditional Owner leadership in fire management. Revitalisation of these practices is significant to the fate of fire management generally in Southeast Australia, including in the rapidly changing climate crisis. These matters will be important enablers of land and water justice moving forward, and we have begun to consider how these justice issues will evolve in the context of treaty-making in Victoria
‘With real agency and authority of Traditional Owners over their Country – in accordance with their plans, priorities and lore – we can confront ecological crises and conceive of pathways to recovery of our lands and waters.’
Bruce Lindsay, EJA Senior Specialist Lawyer and First Nations & Justice Lead
Traditional Yorta Yorta lands lie on both sides of the Murray River, roughly from Cohuna in the west to Albury-Wodonga in the east, south to Benalla and northwards to just south of Deniliquin. Since 2018, Yorta Yorta Nation Aboriginal Corporation’s traditional ownership has been recognised in joint management of the Barmah National Park. Our team provides legal support for Yorta Yorta in this role.
The floodplain marshes in the Barmah National Park are under threat of extinction due to grazing and trampling pressure from introduced species, particularly feral horses. Together with our supporters, we called for an investigation into Parks Victoria’s handling of a flooding event and a joint review of emergency responses.
Aboriginal leaders continue to be subjected to racial vilification for their role in protecting Country. Rather than engage with the substance of the Barmah Strategic Action Plan, which is backed by science and being implemented by a government agency, some elements of a brumby preservation group have instead chosen to engage in a campaign of personal attacks on and intimidation of Traditional Owners. Racial vilification, a perverse form of violence, is damaging not only to the individuals or groups vilified, but also to the cohesion and harmony of a culturally diverse society. On behalf of our client, we sought unsuccessfully to have this dispute mediated. The matter may now be the subject of legal proceedings at the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal.
Larrakia People haven’t been consulted with. We are the custodians of the Country, and our voices need to be heard.
Lorraine Williams, Larrakia Traditional Custodian and EJA client
Climate
Our vision is for a safe and stable climate, healthier, empowered communities and a legal system that has climate justice as its foundation. That is why EJA is using the law to force governments to act, to transform industries and to ensure that justice for the people most affected is at the centre of solutions.
This year's highlights
- Launching the Living Wonders legal intervention
- Enabling more than 10,000 concerned citizens to make public comment on coal and gas approvals in light of climate harm evidence
- Developing an Australian-first Climate Justice Legal Project training program
‘The fact they [the government] are still approving new fossil fuel projects in the middle of a climate crisis highlights that they are not in any way committed to effective and science-based climate action.’
Chris Black, EJA client
Australia’s environment ministers have repeatedly failed to take into account the biggest threat of them all: climate change. To address this, our client, the Environment Council of Central Queensland (ECoCeQ), launched the massive Living Wonders climate legal intervention to demand the Minister reconsider the climate impact of 19 coal and gas proposals on matters of national environmental significance
For the first time in our country’s history, the Minister agreed to reconsider coal and gas proposals on climate grounds. This was after our client provided more than 3,000 documents and spreadsheets listing the direct and indirect impacts of climate change on thousands of animal and plant species at risk of extinction.
The evidence was overwhelming, as were the voices of everyday Australians concerned about the coal and gas proposals during the public comment window in November last year. To support the community to participate, our legal team provided guidance to concerned citizens via six live webinars over a three-week period.
Our communications team produced extensive online resources for people to navigate the government’s difficult-to-use online portal, making it easy to have their say. We estimate that more than 10,000 public submissions were made asking the Minister to listen to the science and act.
The first few dominoes soon fell. Two proponents withdrew their proposals, while the Minister shelved two others and confirmed her rejection of Clive Palmer’s Central Queensland Coal proposal on non-climate grounds. However, this was all window-dressing for what was to come.
In May, the Minister made her first three decisions directly engaging with the Living Wonders reconsideration requests, refusing to register the climate impacts of the proposed fossil fuel developments. Our clients sought our advice on the paths available to them. Ultimately, ECoCeQ felt they had no choice but to further their challenge to the Minister and recognise the scientific reality by taking her to court to have the decisions reviewed. ECoCeQ believe Minister Plibersek has failed in her
responsibility to recognise and respond to threats of serious or irreversible environmental damage arising from fossil-fuel driven climate change.
At the time of writing, we are preparing for the hearing for ECoCeQ’s Federal Court challenge to the Minister’s assessment of two giant coal projects in NSW – the Mount Pleasant Optimisation coal mine expansion and the Narrabri Underground Mine Stage 3 Extension project. ECoCeQ will argue that the Environment Minister’s refusal to accept climate science and what new gas and coal projects mean for the environment across Australia is irrational, illogical and unlawful. Since the cases were filed, the two coal companies pushing for the approval of these projects have also joined the proceedings to defend the Minister’s decisions. If successful, these cases could mean all new coal and gas projects must be properly assessed for their climate risk to our environment. Our client hopes these cases will transform how Australia’s Environment Ministers now and into the future assess climate risk – so the climate harm of every new coal mine or gas field can never be ignored again.
‘For all Australians, and our children, we are bringing the fate and future of our Living Wonders before the court.’
Christine Carlisle, ECoCeQ President
Frontline climate justice
The Climate Justice Legal Project (CJLP) is being implemented in partnership with the Federation of Community Legal Centres and the Climate Council. The aim is to train and support community lawyers to identify and address the impacts of climate injustice, as well as to empower clients and communities to advocate for climate justice. This year we have spent significant time building and developing the foundational aspects of the project, including a strength-based climate justice language guide.
CJLP is being run as a pilot in Victoria, but state and national community legal centre federations are interested in the findings of the project, with strong potential for the CJLP approach to be replicated nationally. The first advocacy focus of the project is the confluence of extreme heat and public housing, and this will remain the focus for the year ahead. EJA was invited to co-deliver the climate justice masterclass at the 2023 National Community Legal Centres Conference.
‘As the climate crisis deepens, unless we act decisively to embed justice in all that we do, the lives of communities already facing injustice and oppression will become even harder.’
Christine Carlisle, ECoCeQ President
Frontline climate justice
The Climate Justice Legal Project (CJLP) is being implemented in partnership with the Federation of Community Legal Centres and the Climate Council. The aim is to train and support community lawyers to identify and address the impacts of climate injustice, as well as to empower clients and communities to advocate for climate justice. This year we have spent significant time building and developing the foundational aspects of the project, including a strength-based climate justice language guide.
CJLP is being run as a pilot in Victoria, but state and national community legal centre federations are interested in the findings of the project, with strong potential for the CJLP approach to be replicated nationally. The first advocacy focus of the project is the confluence of extreme heat and public housing, and this will remain the focus for the year ahead. EJA was invited to co-deliver the climate justice masterclass at the 2023 National Community Legal Centres Conference.
