A New Era of Climate Change Litigation in Australia?

Corporate law
Bachelor of Business Accounting

COMMERCIAL LAW 1
Link for the article:
http://www.mondaq.com/australia/x/799502/Climate+Change/A+new+era+of+climate+chan
ge+litigation+in+Australia
With the increase globalisation and the increased demand to address the needs of the various
stakeholders, there has been placed a great need for the corporations to consider the corporate
compliance practices in their business functions (Miglani, Ahmed and Henry, 2015). The
following work is aimed at analysing the various aspects of the commercial law in the chosen
article by Andre Korbel, namely the “A new era of climate change litigation in Australia?”
The article is based on the various aspects of the director duties as affected by the recent
pronouncements of the regulatory bodies and impact of the same on the corporate
functioning. The significance of the article lies in the fact that there has been increased
attention drawn of the regulatory, judicial and legal bodies since the early 2018 towards the
healthy environmental practices.
The article is mainly focussed on increasing responsibilities of the companies towards the
disclosure of the climate change risks in response to the enhanced focus on the environmental
issues. The article sheds light on the climate change wave in the corporate climate of
Australia. The first section of the article highlights the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate
Change (IPCC) that focusses the attention of the regulatory authorities on the needs to pay
attention to climatic changes in Australia (Korbel, 2019). The article further highlights the
challenges that are being faced in the corporate decision-making and disclosures. Some of the
commentaries are further highlighted in the said article to enable understanding of the
increasing concerns of the regulatory bodies towards the climate change risks. Some of the
recent commentaries that are being highlighted are that of Mr Hutley SC on 29 March 2019,
stating that the company directors can be found personally liable for breaching to consider
climate change risks in future, Thus, the director duties and responsibilities of the
corporations of Australia are once again on radar.
In addition to the above, the article also includes the highlights of the report as prepared by
the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC), in which it accorded the
recommendations of the Taskforce for Climate-related Financial Disclosures for the
corporates to disclose the climate risk associated with the business in a clear and specific