Report: Multimillion Dollar Companies Supporting Environmental Activists for Financial Gain
‘No-win-no-fee’ litigation backers are gambling millions on challenges to big projects across Australia in the hope of taking a major share of any payout.
Many of the high-profile challenges by environmental activist groups against major projects are being backed by litigation funders—large, mostly foreign-owned companies that fund legal fees and other expenses in return for a significant share of any damages and costs awarded to the plaintiffs.
A report by the Menzies Research Centre, Open Lawfare, claims the cost of delays caused by actions filed against various developments was $1.2 billion (US$809 million) in 2016.
However, between August 2022 and June 2024, this had skyrocketed to $17.48 billion and placed almost 30,000 jobs at risk.
| Project | State | Industrial output value ($m) | Employment |
| Angus Place Coal Mine | NSW | 354.9 | 613 |
| Baralaba South Coal Mine | QLD | 600.0 | 613 |
| China Stone Coal Mine | QLD | 11,323.0 | 19,564 |
| Glendell Coal Mine | NSW | 354.9 | 613 |
| Hunter Valley Operations North | NSW | 845.0 | 1,460 |
| Total | 17,483.1 | 29,784 | |
Source: Menzies Research Centre, “Open Lawfare.”
At the same time, the revenue of Australia’s 25 largest environmental groups increased from $112.8 million in 2015 to $274.5 million in 2023, and their full-time staff had gone from 374 to 880.
Australia is the second-largest jurisdiction in the world for what the Menzies Centre calls “environmental lawfare,” behind only the United States. On a per capita basis, it has the largest number of climate-related lawsuits—127 such actions were launched in Australia from the 1990s to 2022.
The report contains detailed case studies of the effects of lawsuits on five recent proposals, including Waratah Coal’s development of a thermal coal mine in the Galilee Basin, dropped by the company in February 2023 after more than three years of litigation.
