Australian Network of Environmental Defenders Offices
| Non-Governmental Organisation | |
| Industry | Environmental law |
| Founded | 1996 |
| Headquarters | All states and territories of Australia |
| Products | Legal representation, advice, submissions on policy formulation, submissions on legislation, and education designed to facilitate public participation in environmental decision making. |
| Services | Each EDO is dedicated to protecting the environment in the public interest. |
| Website | www.edo.org.au/ |
Environmental Defenders’ Offices (EDOs) of Australia consists of nine independently constituted and managed community environmental law centres located in each State and Territory of Australia. EDOs of Australia is notable as Australia's main public interest advocacy law organisation in environmental matters.
EDOs of Australia provides legal support in court cases on environmental matters. EDOs for Australia also plays an advocacy role, lobbying on environmental policy matters.
Several major Australian NGOs, including EDOs of Australia and the Australian Conservation Foundation, have been lobbying has for some years for the inclusion of global warming as a matter of national environmental significance in Australia's main environmental protection legislation, the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999. This campaign was related to a range of court cases with which EDOs of Australia was involved, mostly unsuccessfully, seeking recognition of greenhouse gas emissions as a matter that should be considered in environmental impact assessment procedures. These included those known as the Bowen Basin case, the Anvil Hill cases, and the Gray case. While many of these cases were lost, they raised the profile of climate change as a legal issue, particularly in the mining industry.
Inclusion of greenhouse gas emissions as a trigger in the Australian legislation became a policy of the Australian Labor Party.
The NSW EDO is a notable environmental organisation having worked on numerous environment cases over past years.
A notable case in which EDO NSW was involved is the Humane Society International Inc v Kyodo Senpaku Kaisha Ltd. This was a test case to determine whether whaling by Kyodo in the Australian Whale Sanctuary was against Australian law. The court found that it was and made orders that Kyodo not even interfere with any Antarctic minke whale, fin whale or humpback whale in the sanctuary.
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