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 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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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).
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The IPCC is an international body for assessing climate science. Hundreds of leading climate scientists take part in it, and 195 representatives of countries are members of the IPCC, giving its findings exceptional weight. The IPCC conducts scientific assessments of existing climate science. Its findings provide the basis for all the major international agreements on […]
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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 […]
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