For the first time, a group of Native Australians is suing the Canberra government over the threat of habitat loss due to climate change.

The plaintiffs belong to the Torres Strait islanders, who traditionally inhabit several islands between the northernmost tip of Australia and the neighboring island state of Papua New Guinea.

They differ from the Aborigines on the mainland in their Melanesian culture and origins.

Till Fähnders

Political Correspondent for Southeast Asia.

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According to the lawsuit filed on Tuesday, they see the Australian government as responsible to protect the Torres Strait islanders from the consequences of climate change, according to a press release.

Accordingly, it is the first climate class action lawsuit by Australian indigenous people against the government.

The step before the court is led by two indigenous people who represent communities on the islands of Boigu and Saibai.

One of the largest coal exporters

The islanders criticize the Australian government's lax goals to cut CO2 emissions.

They fear that their islands will become uninhabitable as a result of climate change.

“Our ancestors have lived on these islands for more than 65,000 years.

But the government's failure to prevent the climate crisis means it could flood and the salt could ruin our soils and force our communities to abandon it, ”said Paul Kabai, one of the plaintiffs.

Australia is one of the countries with the highest emissions per capita and one of the largest coal exporters in the world.

The conservative government is sticking to coal mining.

Shortly before the climate summit in Glasgow, however, it made a U-turn on one point.

As the government announced on Tuesday, Australia wants to commit to achieving climate neutrality by 2050 for the first time.

For this, Prime Minister Scott Morrison pledged investments of more than 20 billion Australian dollars in low-emission technologies by 2030. His government wants to achieve the goal "the Australian way," namely through innovative technologies and not through taxation of emissions, said Morrison.

Plaintiff: Canberra is failing to perform “duty of care”

Praise for this came from British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who described the move as "heroic" according to press reports. The Australian opposition, however, criticized the alleged plan as a "fraud". The critics believe that the admission is far too late and that it does not go far enough. Because so far the conservative government is sticking to the less ambitious savings targets for the year 2030, which Australia had already set in the Paris climate agreement. Australia is committed to reducing its emissions by around 26 to 28 percent by 2030 compared to 2005. In an international comparison, however, these goals lag behind what other industrialized countries have promised.

The government argues that it will exceed these targets anyway, as it expects savings of around 30 to 35 percent.

But she doesn't want to commit to it.

The lawyer Isabelle Reinecke from the Grata Fund, which supports the indigenous people in their lawsuit, spoke on Tuesday of a “failure of the government to take the climate crisis seriously”.

The islanders assume that Canberra has a "duty of care" towards them, which it violates with its climate policy.

The indigenous peoples' case follows a similar lawsuit by eight Australian youths, some of whom were found to be right in May.

The judges ruled that the government has a responsibility to protect young people from the effects of climate change.

The indigenous people had also initiated proceedings at the United Nations two years ago, in which they complained of Australia's inaction on climate change.

In the Torres Strait, sea levels are rising twice as fast as the global average, according to the press release.

Boigu and Saibai are particularly flat islands that are only just above sea level.

Both islands are already regularly flooded with salt water, which has an impact on housing, infrastructure, cultural sites and vegetable growing.

In addition, there is an ever longer rainy season and a hotter and drier dry season, intensified storms and cyclones as well as floods that lead to erosion and contaminate the groundwater.

The indigenous people fear that they will have to leave their home islands in the long run.

The islander Kabai warned: “To become a climate refugee means to lose everything: our homeland, our culture, our stories and our identity.

If our homeland is taken away from us, we no longer know who we are. "