China’s carbon pledge revives hopes of a climate game change
Xi Jinping aims for carbon neutrality by 2060 but how he plans to meet that goal is still unclear. The declaration by Xi Jinping, China’s president, at the UN General Assembly on Tuesday – after Donald Trump had earlier criticised Beijing’s environmental record – has been hailed as a major step forward in international negotiations […]
Election and Supreme Court Fight Will Decide Trump’s Environmental Legacy
President Trump has selected Judge Amy Coney Barrett to fill Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s seat on the Supreme Court. He has initiated the most aggressive environmental deregulation agenda in modern history, but as his first term drives to a close, many of his policies are being cut down by the courts — even by Republican-appointed jurists who the […]
Africa’s Court of Human Rights on the brink of collapse
Civil society rejoiced when the Tanzania-based African Court of Human and Peoples’ Rights was established in 1998. But the dream for justice within the continent risks falling apart as member states neglect the court. Within six months, three African nations – Tanzania, Benin, Ivory Coast – have revoked the right of individuals and NGOs to sue them […]
Los Cedros legal case could set a world precedent.
In a precedent-setting move, the Constitutional Court of Ecuador has announced it will take on the case of the threatened Los Cedros Protected Forest by using the Rights of Nature enshrined in the constitution. The Constitutional Court chose to hear this case recently and apply, for the first time, Ecuador’s constitutionally mandated Rights of Nature […]
‘World-first’ legal case: student accuses Australia of misleading investors on climate risk
Katta O’Donnell, 23, says her claim will put government ‘on trial for misconduct’ for failing to address climate change. A Melbourne university student has launched what has been described as a world-first legal case against the Australian government, accusing it of misleading investors in sovereign bonds by failing to disclose the financial risk caused by the […]
Australia’s ‘failing’ environmental laws will fuel further public health crises, Nobel laureate warns
Bushfires and Covid-19 highlight connection between human health and natural world, states letter by almost 200 doctors and scientists Leading health professionals, including a Nobel laureate and a former Australian of the Year, say the government must put human health “front and centre” in a new generation of environment laws in the aftermath of the […]
Climate Change: More than 3bn could live in extreme heat by 2070
Unless greenhouse gas emissions fall, large numbers of people will experience average temperatures hotter than 29C. This is considered outside the climate “niche” in which humans have thrived for the past 6,000 years. Co-author of the study Tim Lenton told the BBC: “The study hopefully puts climate change in more human terms”. Researchers used data […]
Chile to peak emissions by 2025, under strengthened climate pledge
In the midst of a global pandemic, government ministers stressed the need to build a sustainable, resilient economy for the long term. Chile has committed to peaking its greenhouse gas emissions by 2025, in an updated national plan presented virtually to the UN climate chief on Thursday. The plan, by the country currently presiding over […]
EU COVID-19 recovery plan must be green and ambitious, say MEPs.
In a debate with Frans Timmermans, the Environment Committee says the EU must remain firm on climate change and the timetable foreseen for the Green Deal. The EU Climate Law will move ahead as planned, whilst the Commission’s proposals on biodiversity and farm-to-fork will be delayed by a few weeks. Last week, in its resolution on EU coordinated action to combat the […]
Colombian Youth launch climate change action
Today, a group of 25 plaintiffs, between 7 and 26 years old, are filing a legal action to demand that the national government protects their rights to a healthy environment, life, health, food, and water. They claim that the rampant deforestation in the Colombian Amazon and climate change are threatening these rights. This is the […]
