Should the government have a duty of care to protect young people and future generations from climate harm? Independent Senator David Pocock believes so, and is introducing a bill to federal parliament this week that would make it a requirement.
Senator Pocock’s bill makes the call for new conditions to be enshrined in environmental legislation that would mean the government had a duty of care to consider climate harm on young people when making decisions, particularly when it comes to approving fossil fuel projects.
The private members’ bill has been drafted in partnership with Anjali Sharma, a leading youth climate activist and the lead litigant in the historic court case, Sharma and others v. Minister for Environment.
The bill proposed by Pocock would add two conditions to decisions made under six existing pieces of legislation, including the Environmental Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999. It particularly relates to decisions the government makes around financing and developing projects that could worsen climate change.
The bill would ensure that the government would embed in legislation the principle that politicians and policy makers should care about the health and wellbeing of children.
“It’s our duty as politicians and policy makers to make sure that the climate young people inherit is one they can live and thrive in,” Senator Pocock said on Monday.
“We should be thinking about young people when we make decisions. I want to be part of a parliament, and more importantly a country, that takes this responsibility seriously.”
Senator Pocock said a look at any news website or television report and the impacts of climate change on communities are clear.
“The focus on the short term – polls, the media cycle, the next election – need to end,” he said. “We need to be looking at how our decisions impact young people and future generations. We need a legislative tool that can be used in government decision making, and this bill will deliver that.”
Anjali Sharma, who has been a central figure in the climate school strikes, said the bill she has worked on with Pocock follows years of advocacy by young people calling for more climate action.
“As a young person, I’m increasingly scared about my future,” Sharma said on Monday.
“The past few years have seen climate disasters and temperatures that have broken records. The government can either act in accordance with its duty to young people and deliver us a safe and liveable future, or set us on a path to climate catastrophe.”
Pocock’s bill builds on the foundation that was laid out by Sharma and other young people when they took on the former federal environmental minister, Sussan Ley, in federal court. The legal challenge argued that all young people are owed a duty of care to protect them from climate change harm.