Legislative Protection for the Soil Environment and Climate Change

Abstract

AbstractRecent court decisions in Australia and in overseas jurisdictions have made important progress in society’s acceptance of the significance of climate change in the long-term protection of the environment. The term ‘climate litigation’ is now generally used to refer to legal proceedings initiated to establish responsibility for a failure to prevent or reduce the rate of climate change and/or mitigate its negative consequences. Such legal proceedings are being initiated in courts, tribunals and other rule compliance monitoring bodies, operating around the world, at the domestic, regional, or global level. One decision, in the New South Wales Land and Environment Court on 26 August 2021, orders the New South Wales Environment Protection Authority to develop environmental quality objectives, guidelines and policies to ensure protection of the environment from climate change with regard to its duties under the Protection of the Environment Administration Act 1991. This decision is regarded as a landmark decision in New South Wales in that it orders a statutory authority to exercise its duty and legal responsibilities under the Protection of the Environment Administration Act with regard to the level of seriousness that climate change impacts have reached for the New South Wales environment. The case is also significant because the definition of “environment” under the Protection of the Environment Administration Act encapsulates a broad range of ecological elements, including the “soil”. In this context, this chapter argues that the decision is important for a number of reasons including: by interpretation “soil” is a component of the “environment” and it should be protected from climate change under the Protection of the Environment Administration Act; the way the decision is made provides a guiding framework which can used to examine existing environmental laws for protection of the soil environment against climate change; and it provides a guiding framework to prepare new soil legislation with the requisite procedures to develop environmental quality objectives, guidelines and policies to protect the soil environment from climate change. Having regard to these various aspects of the decision, they provide a guiding structure in which to assess the protection of the soil environment in New South Wales, but also a procedure which might be beneficial to other countries to assess the legal protection of the soil environment. The way soil is being used in Australia and around the world is directly contributing to global warming by releasing carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases to the atmosphere. Soil degradation from agricultural land use, vegetation clearing and urban and infrastructure projects and pollution of soil from industrial works require closer attention from legislative and policy structures. Therefore, it is appropriate that increasing attention must be placed on the protection of the soil environment through the adoption of legislative, policy and mitigation responses which prevent the use of soil in a manner that makes it a significant contributor to climate change.