The UN's former top environment and human rights diplomat says an international climate decision in favour of Torres Strait Islanders will influence domestic courts and international tribunals.
The latest IPCC report provides powerful new evidence to support the claims of climate change litigants, according to environment groups, lawyers and climate scientists.
Queensland's Supreme Court will for the first time rule on whether the state's Environmental Protection Act obliges the environment department to consider emissions from coal burning, in a dispute over approval of Hancock Coal's Alpha mine.
Xstrata Coal Qld has failed to secure a Land Court order that Friends of the Earth pay legal costs incurred by the company while it fought the environment group's unsuccessful challenge to mining leases and approvals for the proposed Wandoan coal mine.