Indigenous Torres Strait Islanders have brought a class-action complaint against the nation’s government for its failure to combat global warming, threatening to turn their inhabitants “climate refugees.”

Aborigines on low-lying islands off northern Australia filed a groundbreaking lawsuit on Tuesday aimed at forcing the government to shield them from climate change by reducing carbon emissions more deeply.

Lawyers representing traditional landowners in Boigu and Saibai-which are among the islands most affected-want the federal court to order the administration “to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to a level that will prevent Torres Strait Islanders from becoming climate refugees”

Less than 5.000 people live in the Torres Strait, also referred to as Zenadth Kes, a cluster of about 274 islands located between mainland Australia and Papua New Guinea.

It is believed to be the first class action action against climate change initiated by Aboriginal Australians.

Climate change

Climate change includes both human-induced global warming and its large-scale impacts on weather patterns. There have been previous periods of climate change, (wikipedia)


Aboriginal Australians

Aboriginal Australians are the various Indigenous peoples of the Australian mainland and many of its islands, such as Tasmania, Fraser Island, Hinchinbrook Island, the Tiwi Islands, (wikipedia)


Indigenous Australians

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Indigenous Australians are people with familial heritage to groups that lived in Australia before British colonisation. They include the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples of Australia. (wikipedia)


Torres Strait Islanders

Torres Strait Islanders than on the Islands . There are five distinct peoples within broader designation of Torres Strait Islander people, based partly on geographical and cultural divisions. (wikipedia)