A student from New Zealand challenged the government’s decision not to change their 2050 GHG emissions reduction target after the release of the IPCC’s AR5 report, which stated that tougher targets were needed to avoid dangerous climate change. The court ruled that an objective of New Zealand’s Climate Change Response Act 2002 is for New Zealand to […]
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In the UK, an environmental organisation brought a case against the government for failing to revise their 2050 mitigation target after the Paris Agreement. The government’s view was that the Paris Agreement’s reference to “pursuing efforts to limit the temperature rise to 1.5 degrees” was only intended to strengthen efforts to limit temperature rises to […]
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This is a database of legal provisions in different countries that relate to climate change. You can find information on: Climate change legislation that exists in different countries; An assessment of the quality of climate change legislation in these countries; and Recommendations on best practice. You can use this database to find out whether there […]
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In 2017, an advocacy group brought a case against the Irish government, arguing that the government’s National Mitigation Plan was unlawful and should be quashed, in part, because it violated Ireland’s Climate Action and Low Carbon Development Act 2015. In July 2020, the Supreme Court issued a ruling quashing the Plan. The Irish Climate Action […]
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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 […]
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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 […]
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Although it is now quite dated, this is a useful UN paper that provides an overview of the impacts climate change has on different human rights. It provides useful information for human rights-based arguments and has reference to evidence that shows how human rights will be affected.
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Greenpeace International, a partner of A4J, has created an excellent guide on how to bring a human rights-based climate change case against the government. It goes into detail on: Climate science you could use as evidence; How to identify enforceable human rights; Issues of admissibility (i.e. standing and justiciability); How you can prove a violation […]
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In the UK, an environmental organisation successfully challenged the expansion of Heathrow Airport on the basis that the government failed to consider how the expansion was consistent with their commitments under the Paris Agreement.
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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 […]
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