The Winds of Change: How Climate Change Litigation is Raising the Temperature for Industry Participants and their Officers

Recorded On: 09/01/2022

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Organized by the Australia Pacific Chapter

Mark van Brakel, Partner, Allen & Overy
Goran Galic, Partner, Allen & Overy
Karina Travaglione, Senior Associate, Allen & Overy
Marina Georgiou, Barrister, Francis Burt Chambers

Nearly all industry participants now face pressure to embrace sustainable methods of operating, in light of increased focus on climate change risks. Many, rightly, are focused on driving that change internally. However, external standards of conduct, in the form of community and industry expectations, regulations, laws and rulings are changing rapidly, and are in many instances, uncertain.

In this complex and evolving context, there has been a significant rise in climate litigation, which can bring enormous reputational and financial risk as corporate players are being singled out in an ongoing series of test cases.  The energy sector continues to be a target of this litigation in increasingly novel ways. 

Australia has been a global hotspot for climate litigation since its inception. However, cases have historically been brought in a fragmented, piecemeal way, designed to disrupt or delay individual projects.

That is changing rapidly. As the public focus has shifted, litigants have grown more sophisticated and strategic. They now see litigation as an efficient way to establish a set of overarching obligations that require all industry participants to research, consider, report on, and respond to climate-related risks. And they achieve this by making an example of one or two participants.

Our presentation explores the current trends in strategic climate litigation, by reference to recent and current cases in Australia and internationally. It will also chart our expectations for the coming years: what litigation will be brought, who it will be brought by and against, and what remedies will be sought. In this regard, we will explore the reality that directors and senior managers of companies potentially face significant personal liability arising from such litigation, and that they will need to rely upon fully informed advisors to implement plans to minimize those risks. We will provide some guidance as to the practices that companies and their officers need to adopt now to protect their companies and themselves from these risks.


Mark van Brakel

Partner, Allen & Overy

Mark van Brakel is the managing partner of the Asia-Pacific and Australian litigation practice and has extensive experience in complex and strategically significant litigation, international arbitration and contentious regulatory work. He has acted for leading corporations in the energy and resources sector in Australia on matters ranging from major engineering and project disputes, joint venture disputes and arbitrations, through to responding to regulatory investigations and associated civil penalty proceedings. He also acts regularly in director and shareholder disputes.

Goran Galic

Partner, Allen & Overy

Goran Galic is an energy, resources and projects specialist. He has a focus on clean energy transition and decarbonisation.  He leads on amongst the first hydrogen and CCS project development proposals in Australia and is closely involved with our energy and mining clients’ carbon offsetting and climate risk and reporting strategies.  He also advises across all aspects of the ‘pit to port’ spectrum within the energy, mining and petroleum sectors including on project acquisition, joint venturing, project development and infrastructure construction, operations and services arrangements and off-take. Goran has been involved with some of Australia’s largest mining, LNG and renewable energy projects and brings significant experience in resources projects globally including in relation to environmental and social governance.

Karina Travaglione

Senior Associate, Allen & Overy

Karina Travaglione is a senior associate in the Allen & Overy litigation team. Karina has represented clients in a broad range of complex litigation and multinational arbitration proceedings, with a particular emphasis on matters in the energy and resources sector. Her experience includes acting on disputes arising from the development and operation of major mining and LNG projects, including joint venture disputes, judicial and merits review proceedings, and misleading or deceptive conduct claims.

Marina Georgiou, Barrister

Barrister, Francis Burt Chambers

Marina Georgiou has been a barrister at Francis Burt Chambers since 2017 and before that was a solicitor at the State Solicitor’s Office.  Marina practices in commercial litigation and has a strong background in administrative, constitutional, environment and planning, and native title law.

Marina regularly acts for private and government clients, including for proponents in environment matters.  Marina has recently acted as junior counsel in challenges to environment approvals relating to the Burrup Hub.  She is the current Chair of the WA branch of the Australian Institute for Administrative Law.

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