Ten residents of the Indonesian island of Bali have filed the island’s first climate lawsuit, asking a court to halt new fossil fuel projects after alleging government failures on climate and land-use policies contributed to the deadly floods that struck the island in September 2025.
The citizen lawsuit, filed with the Denpasar District Court by the PULIHKAN Bali Coalition, names 14 state institutions, including President Prabowo Subianto, as defendants. The plaintiffs allege the government violated constitutional rights to a healthy environment, personal security, and protection from disaster threats.
The lawsuit follows floods that killed 18 people, affected more than 6,000 households, and caused an estimated Rp28.9 billion (US$1.6 million) in economic losses.
Among the coalition’s demands is a court-ordered moratorium on permits for new fossil fuel infrastructure and other projects it says damage the environment, including land-use conversion in water catchment areas.
Suriadi Darmoko, an organizer with 350.org Indonesia and one of the plaintiffs, said the case reflects frustration over what the coalition sees as a gap between Indonesia’s climate commitments and domestic policies.
“It is deeply ironic that our leaders fly to London to deliver speeches on global climate leadership and are praised as Asian pioneers, while in the very same part of the world within their responsibility, lives were lost due to floods caused by climate neglect and failed land-use planning,” Darmoko said.
“A moratorium on new fossil fuel infrastructure projects must be immediately put into place,” he added.
The plaintiffs’ lawyer, Ignatius Rhadite, said they want the court to recognize that “the 18 lives lost last year were the result of state negligence that has been allowed to persist for decades” and to order reforms to prevent future disasters.
The coalition said the case follows last year’s advisory opinion of the International Court of Justice, which held that states and polluters can be held accountable for climate-related harm.
