4. Conclusion

Land law provides a regulatory framework that is essential to the functioning of Australian society. It not only governs ownership and transactions involving land but also complements environmental and planning laws that regulate land use.

While land law has played a role in facilitating and protecting the use of land in ways that have contributed to GHG emissions, it is already developing some responses towards climate change mitigation and adaptation objectives. Recent developments in land law include the creation of new kinds of property rights such as ‘emissions units’ or ‘carbon sequestration rights’, and development of easements to support solar access and respond to sea level rise. Environmental and planning laws also operate alongside land law and can impose protective conditions on land use in coastal areas most vulnerable to climate risks.

Crucially, land law holds substantial potential as a tool to build resilience and advance climate change adaptation in Australian society. In the future, land law could be developed to regulate mortgage interests granted over stranded assets, provide greater opportunities for climate risk disclosure at the time land is bought and sold, and support strategic relocation of people and assets away from high-risk areas or buyback of uninhabitable land by the State.

Using land law as part of a climate response will require us to think about how land, and interests in it, are valued by our society. We must also consider how settled rules of land law can be adapted or changed in principled ways to achieve crucial climate policy objectives in relation to mitigation, adaptation, loss and damage.