decision

Pridel Investments Pty. Ltd. v. Coffs Harbour City Council - decision

Filing Year For Action

This case dealt with the Coffs Harbour City Council’s rejection of Pridel Investments’ application to develop a 39-lot subdivision. The city council’s grounds for rejection included unacceptably high flooding risk, failure to consider various climate change impacts in accordance with state and national coastal and climate policy, and sustainable development principles as required by the local planning program—the Our Living City Settlement Strategy. The court noted that the plans for construction assumed a 100-year lifespan for the subdivision, but relied on several assumptions about how well existing dunes and other features of the location would withstand climate change, noting that the Council’s objections were not dependent on climate change, but rather a current risk that the protective dune and vegetation will be eroded. It also characterized the plan as impermissible “urban sprawl along the coast” and highlighted as a “fatal flaw” the site’s lack of any alternative means of emergency vehicle access to the site.

Pridel Investments Pty. Ltd. v. Coffs Harbour City Council

The Climate Litigation Database

Find climate change litigation data and indicators for {text}.

{text} litigation

Sabin Center for Climate Change Law provides Climate Litigation Database, a comprehensive database of US and Global climate change caselaw

Quickly and easily search through the complete text of thousands of climate change law and policy documents from every country.

Search the Climate Litigation Database

An aim to achieve a quantifiable outcome within a given time-frame, set by an institution such as a national government.

Policy instruments are techniques or tools used by governing authorities to promote certain policies in order to achieve predetermined goals. Put simply, instruments are how a government tries to achieve its goals, with this taxonomy being focused on national policy instruments.

Risk is the potential for adverse consequences resulting from the dynamic interplay between (climate-related) hazards, exposure, and vulnerability of affected human or ecological systems.

Groups  of people who are adversely affected by climate change or the response to it

A set of principles, processes, and practices that build economic and political power to shift from an extractive economy to a regenerative economy.

Renewable energy means all forms of energy produced from renewable sources in a sustainable manner.

Fossil fuel is a generic term for non-renewable energy sources such as coal, fossil gas, and oil (including crude oil, and petroleum products), that can be used for electricity and heat generation. Fossil fuels are hydrocarbons formed from pressurised and heated organic material buried over millions of years.

Molecules in the atmosphere that play a key role in the greenhouse effect by trapping heat radiating from Earth’s surface.

Area of the economy in which actors engage in identical or related activities.

In human systems, the process of adjustment to actual or expected climate change and its effects, in order to moderate harm, increase resilience or exploit beneficial opportunities. In natural systems, the process of adjustment to actual climate change and its effects; human intervention may facilitate adjustment to expected climate change and its effects.

The management and allocation of funds, assets and investments to meet various objectives

Risks to the ecosystem health of the marine environment, including ocean warming, ocean acidification, and ocean deoxygenation, harming biodiversity, species health, ecosystem services, and coastal community livelihoods.

Terrestrial means "of the earth" and relates to the risks to ecological system that includes all living organisms and their interactions within land-based environments, such as forests, grasslands, and deserts.

Slow onset events evolve gradually from incremental changes over many years or from increased frequency or intensity of recurring events. As defined in the Cancun Adaptation Framework (2010), slow onset events include risks and impacts from rising temperatures, desertification, biodiversity loss, land and forest degradation, glacial retreat, ocean acidification, sea level rise, and salinization.

Either money or something of monetary value is transferred between two or more organisations, people or countries.

Heavy precipitation refers to any form of weather where substances fall from the sky, including rain, snow, sleet, or hail.

Activities that involve planning, designing and building infrastructure, residential, and commercial structures.

This sector includes firms and individuals offering specialised expertise in fields such as law, accounting, consulting, science and engineering.

This sector involves the distribution, treatment, and conservation of water resources.

Coastal zone and marine-related actions and measures to adapt and increase resilience to climate change

Conditions that enhance the feasibility of adaptation options. Enabling conditions include finance, technological innovation, strengthening policy instruments, institutional capacity, multi-level governance and changes in human behaviour and lifestyles.

Activities of businesses and institutions that provide financial services and products to individuals and organisations.

Actions or measures to adapt freshwater, coastal and marine systems to climate change.

Zoning and spatial planning are both methods for guiding the distribution of people and activities in a space, and are regulatory restriction.

Jobs that contribute to preserving or restoring the environment. We include jobs which require a high amount of green skills or which spend much of their time on green activities, as well as jobs transforming polluting industries.

Activities of industries that extract natural resources, such as mining, oil, and gas, for commercial use.

Actions or measures to adapt freshwater systems to climate change.

This sector involves activities to move goods and people, alongside the storage of products.

Extreme weather refers to events where a weather variable exceeds (or falls below) a threshold. Meaning it is significantly different from the average or usual weather pattern.

Actions to adapt and increase the resilience of rural and urban infrastructure and settlements to climate change.

Pridel Investments Pty. Ltd. v. Coffs Harbour City Council - decision

Policy instrument

Risk

Just transition

Fossil fuel

Economic sector

Adaptation/resilience

Finance