Katta O'Donnell, 23, was sitting in her lecture theatre awaiting her guest lecturer. She was taking a climate law subject at La Trobe University's Bundoora campus. The person scheduled to speak was lawyer, David Barnden -- Katta's future lawyer.
"I was really interested in the work that he was doing," Katta told The Feed.
After the lecture, Katta walked over to Barnden to talk about his cases on climate risk. Not too long after that, she contacted Barnden again. This time it was about a case she wanted to put forward.
Katta, like countless others, invests in government bonds through her superannuation fund -- which is thought to be a low-risk investment.
"I wanted to invest my savings in something," she said, "it's pretty hard for young people to invest in a house these days, it's all very expensive."
"I'm not a huge investor but government bonds are traditionally seen as quite a safe investment."
But Katta says the federal government hasn't disclosed enough about their climate change policy, making her investment a high risk one.
"I got in contact with Barnden later about my rights and about the risks that young people face [when making these investments]," she said.
Her claim is seeking to prove the government allegedly failed in its duty to disclose climate change risks to investors.
"One part of the claim is that the government has misled, or deceived investments, by not disclosing these risks," David Barnden, principal lawyer at Equity Generation Lawyers, told The Feed.
The second part of the claim is aimed at Commonwealth officials who work in government departments, and alleges they haven't met standards of care and due diligence.
"The claim alleges that, in not disclosing these risks, these people aren't doing their jobs properly," he said.
Government regulators are pushing companies to disclose how climate change might impact their investors. In a in 2017, Australia’s financial industry regulator, APRA, said climate change was a material risk not for the future, but actionable now.
APRA, alongside corporate regulator ASIC and the Reserve Bank, are pushing public companies to investigate and disclose climate risk to investors.
Why now?
The answer is simple for Katta's lawyer, David Barnden: the last six months shows there's no time to wait.
"We've seen with the bushfires earlier this year, the manifestation of climate change risks as a physical risk," Barnden told The Feed.
"With COVID you see the government borrowing a lot more money via bonds to, to pay for things like Job Keeper, but also to pay for essential services like health and education."
Barnden says this creates more debt, especially as we become sensitive to certain risk factors. He uses the example of global credit rating agencies like Standard and Poor's, Fitch, and Moody's, taking into account the creditworthiness of countries based on climate change risks.
As evidence of the "sovereign risk" attached to a lack of climate change disclosure, he cites the Central Bank of Sweden, who held eight per cent of their foreign exchange reserves in Australian dollars, divesting from Australian and Queensland bonds because of high per capita carbon emissions.
"So you can see there's a lot of concern in the investment community about bonds and climate change," he said.
'There is a lot of climate change litigation going across the economy'
The class action led by Katta isn't a traditional approach, according to Professor Scott Donald.
He contrasts her case with another lawsuit taken by Barnden's firm, Equity Generation Lawyers, with Mark McVeigh, who is suing his superannuation fund, Rest, in relation to climate risks.
Prof Donald says McVeigh's lawsuit is more common because there have been cases in the past where either a shareholder or a member of a super fund has taken legal action.
"I haven't seen many cases of the government being sued for insufficient disclosure," said Prof Donald, Director of the Centre for Law, Markets and Regulation at UNSW Law.
"Its novelty concerns me a little bit and it might be a bit of a stretch."
Prof Donald believes the case will need to show a connection between any assumed deficiencies in disclosing climate change risks and the financial loss caused by that lack of disclosure.
"What she's basically saying is if the government is not disclosing the climate risk...[investors] therefore make decisions that are not fully informed, and therefore, members are suffering loss," he said.
"There are some quite big steps to take in this reasoning and that might not be easy.
"If she wants to win, rather than make a political point, you will have to demonstrate loss."
Prof Donald said litigation motivated by climate change, or climate change inaction, is becoming more common. He says this might lead to more institutions disclosing their action against climate change.
"This [case] is designed to galvanise attention, but I can't see treasury disclosing much more than it already has about its climate change policies and the risk climate change has on the industry.
"There is a lot of climate change litigation going across the economy."
'Unfortunately, it has fallen on young people because we know that it's our future'
The bushfires over the summer affected Katta, she lives in a "very high-risk bushfire zone", she felt the bushfires proximity to her.
"I have friends who've lost their homes and lost their family members," she told The Feed.
What she referred to as the "black summer" led her to take on this class action. Katta isn't alone in looking for action on climate change, she is joined with a swell of young people across the world from the high schoolers protesting last year to Greta Thunberg.
"Unfortunately, it has fallen on young people because we know that it's our future," she said.
"It's an issue that causes anxiety. I think it's really personal to everyone because our leaders are not taking [climate change] seriously."
Katta worries she sounds like a scolding parent when she says the lack of response from our leaders is disappointing.
"It hurts that we know the answers and we know the solutions, but they're just not being put in place," she said.
