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 […]
Content type: Resource Bank
Data type: Legal citations,
Legal Topic: Climate change,
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 […]
Content type: Resource Bank
Data type: Legal citations,
Legal Topic: Climate change,
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.
Content type: Resource Bank
Data type: Legal references,
Legal Topic: Climate change,
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 […]
Content type: Resource Bank
Data type: How-to guides (manuals, toolkits),
Legal Topic: Climate change,
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.
Content type: Resource Bank
Data type: Legal citations,
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 […]
Content type: Resource Bank
Data type: Legal citations,
Legal Topic: Climate change,
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).
Content type: Resource Bank
Data type: Legal citations,
Legal Topic: Climate change,
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 […]
Content type: Resource Bank
Data type: Legal references,
Legal Topic: Climate change,
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 […]
Content type: Resource Bank
Data type: Legal citations,
Legal Topic: Climate change,
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.
Content type: Resource Bank
Data type: Legal citations,
Legal Topic: Climate change,
