On 14 July 2025, the Federal Court commenced a 2 day hearing of proceedings initiated in April 2025 by the Environmental Defender’s Office (EDO), representing a group called the Doctors for the Environment Australia (DEA), to challenge the validity of NOPSEMA’s acceptance of Woodside’s Production Environment Plan (EP) for its Scarborough Gas Project, part of the company’s Burrup Hub plan.
The DEA are seeking judicial review of the acceptance of the EP on the basis that NOPSEMA may have accepted the EP without fully understanding how the impacts of the Scarborough gas project will be managed. The DEA claim that the EP contained statements to the effect that emissions associated with Scarborough could not be linked to climate change impacts to the environment. The DEA argue that greenhouse gas emissions were an impact, not a potential impact, and as such, they had to be evaluated against environmental performance outcomes and control measures. DEA explained it has taken this legal action in the broader context of a global climate emergency, which it claims has “profoundly harmful consequences” for the health of billions of people around the world.
On 6 June 2025, the DEA won a maximum costs order, limiting to $80,000 the amount NOPSEMA and Woodside could seek in legal costs if its case loses, effectively allowing their challenge to move forward. The Court held that the case raised important questions about the lawful exercise of statutory power and hence, a maximum costs order was necessary to facilitate access to justice.
This action is one of the two most recent in a series of challenges to Woodside’s $12bn Scarborough gas project. In June 2025, The Friends of Australian Rock Art commenced Supreme Court action against the WA Government and Woodside. They will argue the State did not consider the climate impacts of the project, including potential effects on the Burrup Peninsula Indigenous rock art, in the area traditional owners know as Murujuga.
Murujuga was given World Heritage status by determination of the World Heritage Committee in Paris on Friday, 11 July 2025.