Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Liz Hicks @lizhicks.bsky.social · 1h

“Its energy roadmap, released on Friday, can’t really be interpreted as anything other than a transparently political document, designed to placate climate deniers that have a stranglehold on significant parts of the state’s governing party.”

www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Queensland’s pandering to climate deniers is making it even tougher for Australia to drive down emissions | Clear Air

Queensland is Australia’s top polluter – even worse than Western Australia, which has no climate target and adores its fossil fuel industry

www.theguardian.com

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Liz Hicks @lizhicks.bsky.social · 1d

“Lawyers and activists say these incidents fit a pattern of increased police force against protesters – including so-called ‘less-lethal’ tools such as baton rounds, flash-bang devices and capsicum spray.”

7ampodcast.com.au/episodes/why...

Why protests are getting more dangerous

Melbourne photojournalist Alex Zucco was cleaning her camera lens when a police officer hit her directly in the face with a stream of capsicum spray at a protest outside the Melbourne Land Forces Inte...

7ampodcast.com.au

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Liz Hicks @lizhicks.bsky.social · 2d

“Global warming from Woodside’s massive Scarborough gas project off Western Australia would lead to 484 additional heat-related deaths in Europe alone this century… our new research has revealed.”

theconversation.com/for-the-firs...

For the first time, we linked a new fossil fuel project to hundreds of deaths. Here’s the impact of Woodside’s Scarborough gas project

The results challenge claims that the climate risks posed by an individual fossil fuel project are negligible or cannot be quantified.

theconversation.com

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Liz Hicks @lizhicks.bsky.social · 2d

“New South Wales police wrongly categorised a “significant” number of incidents as antisemitic, including anti-Palestinian graffiti and verbal abuse of pro-Palestine protesters, a parliamentary inquiry has been told.”

www.theguardian.com/australia-ne...

NSW police wrongly categorise ‘significant’ number of incidents as antisemitic

Anti-Palestinian graffiti and verbal abuse of pro-Palestine protestors incorrectly recorded as antisemitism in figures government cited to defend restrictions on protests

www.theguardian.com

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Liz Hicks @lizhicks.bsky.social · 2d

“A crunch is coming. In its annual report, Freedom House, the US-based rights watchdog, found that violence, poll manipulation and repression marred more than 40% of national elections held in 2024.“

www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

France is not alone in its political crisis – belief in a democratic world is vanishing | Simon Tisdall

The populist right offers a solution in the form of turning back the clock. Macron and his counterparts need to find a different answer fast, says Guardian foreign affairs commentator Simon Tisdall

www.theguardian.com

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Reposted by Liz Hicks

Wolfgang Obergassel @obergassel.bsky.social · 6d

This looks like an excellent analysis of what’s going on in UK #climate politics. It’s truly disheartening, the UK was a lighthouse with its cross-party consensus on climate policy and world-leading institutional setup to enable science-based policy-making. And now it’s falling apart

Jacob Edenhofer @jacobedenhofer.bsky.social · 7d

Some thoughts on the strategic logic behind Kemi Badenoch’s announcement that she’d scrap the Climate Change Act (CCA).
It serves two functions:
1️⃣ It appeals to lukewarm pivotal voters in marginal seats sceptical of costly green measures.
2️⃣ It is designed to
www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Kemi Badenoch vows to repeal Climate Change Act

Tory leader says she would replace it with ‘cheap energy’ strategy, ending decades-long consensus on climate

www.theguardian.com

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Liz Hicks @lizhicks.bsky.social · 6d

“The Coalition wants to ensure the final say on projects rests with the minister, not the EPA, which would be tasked with compliance matters, and that duplication with the states would be minimised as much as possible.”

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Liz Hicks @lizhicks.bsky.social · 6d

“However the minister has indicated the government is unlikely to side with the Greens to see the laws passed while the party demands the inclusion of a "climate trigger" that could be used to block coal and gas projects.”

www.abc.net.au/news/2025-10...

Watt nears deal with Coalition to finally overhaul environment laws

Environment Minister Murray Watt will sit down with his Liberal counterpart Angie Bell today, with quiet optimism in both parties that a deal might soon be struck to finally rewrite Australia's "broke...

www.abc.net.au

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Reposted by Liz Hicks

benjaminpohlberlin.bsky.social @benjaminpohlberlin.bsky.social · 11d

"to see these uprisings as South Asia’s Arab Spring is misleading. They are not clones of one another, nor do they herald a uniform democratic tide. Each is written in its own dialect ... What unites them is the collapse of patience with elites, what separates them is the path that follows collapse"

Ashok Swain @ashoswai.bsky.social · 11d

Is India next? Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Nepal — three regimes toppled in three years. Not an “Arab Spring,” but a South Asian warning: protests can oust leaders, not build orders. Renewal, fragility, chaos — the region now lives between all three. #MyPiece scroll.in/article/1087...

South Asia’s ‘Arab Spring’ comparison is misleading but there is a lesson for India here

It is less about a shared regional revolution than about the impatience of citizens, especially young citizens, and the challenge of what comes after.

scroll.in

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Reposted by Liz Hicks

Justin Hendrix @justinhendrix.bsky.social · 11d

Macron remarks are notable- some quotes: "We have been incredibly naive in entrusting our democratic space to social networks that are controlled either by large American entrepreneurs or large Chinese companies, whose interests are not at all the survival or proper functioning of our democracies."

Defend Democracy @defenddemocracy.bsky.social · 11d

President Macron: “Europeans, let's wake up!

We have been incredibly naive in entrusting our democratic space to social networks.”

defenddemocracy.eu/macron-democ...

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Liz Hicks @lizhicks.bsky.social · 20d

Thanks Michael!

Reposted by Liz Hicks

Australian Public Law Blog @auspublawblog.bsky.social · 20d

New today on AUSPUBLAW: @lizhicks.bsky.social analyses the Federal Court’s reliance on the concept of ‘core policy’ in determining Commonwealth duties of care in relation to climate change in Pabai v Commonwealth: www.auspublaw.org/blog/2025/09...

‘Climate Overloading’ and Separation of Powers Arguments: Reflections on Pabai v Commonwealth of Australia — Australian Public Law

Liz Hicks The recent Federal Court decision of Pabai v Commonwealth (No 2 ) [2025 ] FCA 796 considered wheth er the Commonwealth owed two duties of care to the Torres Strait Islander peopl...

www.auspublaw.org

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Liz Hicks @lizhicks.bsky.social · 20d

So this is the second time someone has used the “I’m overloaded so can’t read this right now” pun 😆

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Liz Hicks @lizhicks.bsky.social · 20d

Abstract concerns about justiciability then go looking for doctrinal clothes that are an uncomfortable fit for reasons of principle and precedent. /6

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Liz Hicks @lizhicks.bsky.social · 20d

Climate overloading isn’t a strategy or problem that is specific to common law contexts, but it does create particular problems here because of the common law’s aversion to abstract reasoning. /5

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Liz Hicks @lizhicks.bsky.social · 20d

By framing the questions before the court at such a high level of abstraction and complexity, defendants effectively ‘overload’ those questions so that they are not susceptible to concrete legal analysis. /4

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Liz Hicks @lizhicks.bsky.social · 20d

I’ve contextualised this within a phenomenon I describe as ‘climate overloading’: a form of argument that takes a more context-specific, discrete question that could be susceptible to a legal answer and lumps that question together with the problem of climate change as whole. /3

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Liz Hicks @lizhicks.bsky.social · 20d

There is a lot to say about this decision. I’ve focussed my comments here on the Court’s reliance on the concept of ‘core policy’ in its reasoning (and a similar reliance on the concept in the Full Court decision in the Sharma litigation in 2022). /2

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Liz Hicks @lizhicks.bsky.social · 20d

In this post for auspublaw I share some thoughts on the recent Australian Federal Court decision of Pabai v Commonwealth. /1

www.auspublaw.org/home/2025/09...

‘Climate Overloading’ and Separation of Powers Arguments: Reflections on Pabai v Commonwealth of Australia — Australian Public Law

Liz Hicks

www.auspublaw.org

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Reposted by Liz Hicks

Michael Jakob @ct-economics.bsky.social · 23d

Yesterday there have been protests for accelerated climate policies around the world. Starting tomorrow, I will post one reason for climate optimism every week to encourage people to keep up the momentum.

Marchers gather in worldwide protest of financial institutions 'profiting off the climate crisis'

On the eve of New York Climate Week, activists and members of the public have gathered to protest the financial institutions that are “making our lives more expensive while profiting off the climate c...

apnews.com

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Reposted by Liz Hicks

Royce Kurmelovs @roycerk2.bsky.social · 29d

'“When you put together all the cases, it becomes apparent that the companies are using quite an aggressive legal strategy,” Bart-Jaap Verbeek said. “The arbitration clauses in the contracts the government signed with them allowed them to do this.”'

Story via @rishpardikar.bsky.social.

Exxon and Shell Sue The Netherlands in Secret Tribunals for Closing Europe’s Biggest Gas Field

Following billions in profits and over a thousand gas extraction-related earthquakes, the oil and gas giants filed claims against the Dutch state in four separate investor-state disputes concerning co...

drilled.media

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Liz Hicks @lizhicks.bsky.social · Sep 13

“And there’s a further asymmetry: a single post from a random, anonymous user online will be treated as a statement from “the left”, while the outpourings of the right’s most powerful voices, in politics or the media, and including the president himself, somehow get a free pass.”

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Liz Hicks @lizhicks.bsky.social · Sep 13

“Different rules apply. After an act of violence, Democrats must be gracious, empathetic and call for calm on all sides, while Republicans can mock the victims, blame only one side and demand more violence.”

www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

The US is on the brink of another era of political violence – and Donald Trump ‘couldn’t care less’ | Jonathan Freedland

In their humane responses to the killing of Charlie Kirk, Democrats are observing the old norms. Things are different now: anger and division rule, says Guardian columnist Jonathan Freedland

www.theguardian.com

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Liz Hicks @lizhicks.bsky.social · Sep 7

“Those lofty words aged like milk this week as Albanese's government revealed its plans to water down Australia's transparency laws and make secrets easier to keep.”

www.abc.net.au/news/2025-09...

Albanese scoffed at Morrison's secrecy. Then he copied it

When he lashed Scott Morrison over the multiple ministries affair, Anthony Albanese said his predecessor "operated in darkness". But this week, a PM with a patchy transparency record of his own announ...

www.abc.net.au

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Liz Hicks @lizhicks.bsky.social · Sep 5

“The New South Wales environment watchdog sat on a report for four years linking elevated levels of lead in children’s blood to current mining, and promised mining companies they would not do any “finger-pointing”, new documents tabled in state parliament show.”

www.theguardian.com/australia-ne...

Environment watchdog buried report on lead in children’s blood to placate mining companies, emails show

Documents tabled in NSW parliament show state agency took four years to publish report and told miners it would be put online ‘quietly’ but EPA says it was released to community earlier

www.theguardian.com

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