Activist profile: Anjali Sharma

When she was still a high school student, Anjali Sharma was the lead litigant in a class action asking the Federal Court to stop the Minister for the Environment from approving the expansion of a coal mine. In a world first, the court found that the Minister did have a duty of care towards teenagers and children with respect to climate change and its impacts. Unfortunately, the ruling was later overturned – but the campaign continues with support from independent Senator David Pocock. We asked Anjali about her activism and hopes for the future.

Q1: How did your activism begin?

 I was exposed to the impacts of climate change first, before I knew what it was called. I was born in India and all my extended family still live in India - it's a country that has already been severely impacted by climate change. Even though I moved to Australia at a very young age, I knew that there were natural disasters happening and impacting my family in India, and I knew that they were becoming worse, more severe and more frequent. 

Around the age of maybe 12 or 13, I started to understand that the political climate in Australia is quite different to that of India. I have a unique ability here to be able to use what I have at my disposal to hold the government, big polluters and corporations accountable in a way that perhaps might not be safe or accepted in India. So I began to educate myself on the link between natural disasters, the monsoon season and climate change and I began to attend School Strikes and to organise them.

Q2: What's been your biggest win as an activist?

For sure my biggest win so far was that first ruling. The court sided with us and found that the government did have a duty of care to young people to protect us from climate change. If I'm honest, I don't think many of us thought we were going to make it past the first few hearings, but we did and we made it to full trial, and then we got all that evidence before the court, and the court actually listened to us! When the court ruled in our favour it was so fulfilling. It felt like all that work that we've put in was worth it.

The Minister appealed though and we went back to court. Unfortunately, we didn’t get the result we wanted this time and in the most devastating judgement our appeal was also overturned. It was really difficult.

A lot of media around that was quite negative. I remember Googling the case, because I wanted to read the judgement, and I found this website that said “Does the Shama ruling set back climate litigation?” That was a really awful proposition to grapple with, because that was the last thing we all wanted to do. But now looking back on it I realised that we did make such an amazing impact. In both cases the court accepted all the climate science that we put to it. And the government didn't contest the fact that climate change is anthropogenic, and that it will affect young people to a significant extent. That’s now precedent.

Q3: In 2023, a court in the US in the state of Montana court ruled in favour of a group of young people who had filed a complaint claiming the state violated their right to a clean and healthful environment by failing to act on climate change. How does that make you feel?

I feel a mix of things but I do feel so much pride. It’s young people who continue to step up to the bar. Young people are not taking this lying down. It's so heartwarming to see people succeed in an area where you tried your hardest, but weren't able to completely shift the needle. You know, this is exactly how we wanted our case to go. And even though it didn't I'm glad that now, a few years later, there's a different court that has ruled with young people.

Q4: What is the Duty of Care bill? And how can people get involved? 

 Duty of Care is quite a simple concept. If you're a teacher you have a duty of care to students, if you're a doctor you have a duty of care to your patients. It's not a novel concept. It's quite widely accepted that we, as people coexisting in this world, owe a duty to each other to ensure that we don't cause harm. And that's exactly what this bill is about. It's about legislating this mechanism that ensures that the government is handing over to young people a world that is safe and liveable. Duty of Care aims to safeguard us from the worst excesses of the climate crisis. It's basically an extra legislative mechanism to plug a policy gap, because currently there is no legal mechanism where the government is compelled to take into account the interests of young people and their health and wellbeing.

I'm really excited to be working with David Pocock. After we had that devastating ruling in March of 2022, where the court sided with the Minister for Environment and found that there was no duty of care, I began to do my research and see if there was a way that this duty could be legislated rather than taken through the courts. I met with a lot of environmental lawyers, policy experts and other people in this sector. Once I had a decent bank of research, I reached out to a few independent politicians, and I was so honoured that Senator Pocock was keen to take this bill forward.

In January  2025, we signed an Open Letter to Anthony Albanese, which was signed along with over 50 prominent Australians – including five former Australians of the Year, a Nobel Laureate, politicians, journalists, climate scientists and activists – asking the Albanese government to take on the task that the judicial system had rejected.

We also have a petition that people can sign up to. Basically, if you believe that the government should have a duty to ensure that the health and wellbeing of young people is a consideration when it makes policy relating to climate change, then we’re asking you to please sign and show your support.

Q5: What do you hope the future looks like when you're ready to retire?

Since the age of about 15, I’ve been juggling school and a part time job with climate activism - and I was doing it while also taking the government to court. Now I'm doing full time uni and a part time job and running this Duty of Care campaign. I do it because I know that it's very needed. And I use this as a way to fight for all young people, and for my family in India who are on the frontlines of the climate crisis. But really, my hope for the future is that young people don't have to put themselves in these situations anymore. Because it's not a hobby. It's not a passion project. It's not something that you want to spend your time doing. You do it out of a combination of love, and of anxiety for the future. I hope by the time I retire, this particular kind of activism isn’t needed anymore because we have seen real climate action.

Sign the petition here to throw your support behind the Duty of Care bill!

First published on the Future Super app in 2023. The views and opinions expressed by the interviewee are solely their own and do not necessarily represent the views.