A group of senior Swiss women used human rights and constitutional law to challenge their government’s inadequate climate policies. Climate change is affecting their human rights through severe heat waves which have profound impacts on their life, health and wellbeing. Although the claim did not succeed before the Swiss Courts, they argued that their government’s […]
In 2019 a group of youths filed a complaint against the Peruvian government for its alleged failure to halt deforestation in the Amazon. The youths have argued that this failure means the government has not taken sufficient action to address climate change. The claimants have also argued that their human and constitutional rights to a […]
In June 2020, the Constitutional Court of Ecuador agreed to hear an infrastructural challenge brought by Los Cedros Reserve against the government on the grounds that its concessions for mining exploration and exploitation projects violate the Rights of Nature enshrined in the Ecuadorian constitution. The claimants are also arguing that the projects violate the legal […]
The EU General Court rejected the claimant’s arguments that their countries’ GHG reduction targets were too low on the basis that the claim was inadmissible because the claimants were not individually concerned by EU law on climate change (i.e. they lacked sufficient interest).
The Claimant, an environmental organisation, purchased some shares in the defendant company and sued it in its capacity as a shareholder in Poland. The Claimant argued that a proposal by ENEA to construct a new coal plant risked breaching board members’ fiduciary duties of due diligence and to act in the best interests of the […]
A case brought by a Peruvian farmer in German courts against RWE (a German energy company) for their contribution to climate change and its impact on glacial melts and flooding of his community. They demand that RWE contribute to adaptation costs required to protect against flooding.
An environmental organisation in South Africa successfully challenged the opening of a new coal mine on the basis that the responsible public body failed to take into consideration its climate impacts when licensing the project.
A case was brought against government authorities in Pakistan by a local farmer for their failure to put in place sufficient adaptation measures and the resulting damage to his livelihood. The Court held that Pakistan had violated citizens’ rights to life, dignity and property and ordered the government to take measures to minimise the impacts […]
A Dutch environmental group and 886 citizens sued the Netherlands for not taking enough action to reduce their GHG emissions. In 2019, the Dutch Supreme Court found that the Dutch government must, by 2020, have reduced their GHG emissions by at least 25% from 1990 levels. The government’s failure to do this was a violation […]
This is the most recent climate change agreement under the UNFCCC. Its key features are: It sets an objective of limiting global temperature rises to well below 2°C, while pursuing efforts to limit temperature rise to 1.5°C; All countries have an obligation to reduce their GHG emissions; and Countries have to submit nationally determined contributions, which detail countries […]
