Identifying opportunities for climate litigation: a transnational claim by customary landowners in Papua New Guinea against Australia's largest climate polluter

Existing laws in many jurisdictions provide opportunities for climate litigation in the context of the extensive harm climate change is causing and will cause in the future. This article examines 10 key questions for identifying opportunities for climate litigation and applies them to a case study of potential transnational litigation by customary landowners in Papua New Guinea (PNG) against the company that operates the largest, single source of greenhouse gas emissions in Australia, the Loy Yang A Power Station in Victoria. Remarkably, at current rates the emissions from this single company are double PNG's entire direct annual national emissions and cumulatively equate to a century of PNG's emissions. The PNG legal system offers remarkable scope for claims against such large overseas polluters. Transnational litigation such as this is a relatively new frontier for climate litigation. The real prospect of liability for transnational climate damages has enormous implications for Australia, PNG and the global climate regime.