Grata Fund

$40,000 | August 2023

 

Uncle Paul Kabai and Grata Fund Executive Director Isabelle Reinecke speaking to the media after climate case hearings in Cairns in June 2023

 

What do Grata Fund do?

Grata catalyses high impact, strategic climate litigation brought by people and communities. We make high impact, potentially game-changing cases happen, like Uncle Pabai and Uncle Paul’s Australian Climate Case. We are supporting Uncle Pabai and Uncle Paul, two Traditional Owners and Native Title rights holders from the islands of Boigu and Saibai in Zenadth Kes (the Torres Strait) to sue the Australian Government for negligence. If successful, this may force the government to reduce emissions in line with the best available science.

Why is this work important?

This is the first time that anyone in Australia has challenged in court the lawfulness of the Australian Government's inaction on climate change by asserting a common law duty of care to Torres Strait Islanders. The case’s legal strategy is inspired by one of the world’s most successful test cases in history, the Urgenda case in the Netherlands, which used the law as a tool to achieve extraordinary action on climate change. The Urgenda Climate Case had a transformative impact on Dutch climate policy and is a close partner on this case.

Uncle Pabai and Uncle Paul’s Australian Climate Case has the potential to deliver similar change in Australia, helping to neutralise Australia's negative impact on global efforts to tackle the climate crisis.

How is Groundswell supporting this work?

Recent successes in climate litigation and the factually urgent need for climate action, mean that Uncle Pabai and Uncle Paul’s Australian Climate Case case is an extremely timely tool that both enhances the power of the climate movement in Australia and has the potential to create a legally binding responsibility on the Australian Government to take science-informed action to reduce catastrophic harms being caused by their contribution to climate change.

In addition to these legal strategies, Groundswell will support Grata with the following activities:

  • Demonstrate that the Government’s climate targets and plan are vastly insufficient to protect the Torres Strait and other communities from catastrophic climate harm;

  • Create pressure for a more ambitious plan from the Australian Government that is in line with the best available science;

  • and create the political cover needed to support the Australian Government to take further action.