As the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACtHR) prepares to release its advisory opinion on climate change on July 3, 2025—joining earlier decisions from the International Tribunal for the Law of the Seas (ITLOS) and the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR), and in anticipation of the International Court of […]
Climate Litigation
270 posts
A plaintiff from the Global South. A carbon giant from the Global North. And a courtroom in a mid-sized German city. On May 28, 2025, the Higher Regional Court of Hamm issued its ruling in what has become Germany’s most high-profile climate lawsuit — Lliuya v. RWE. While the court […]
As of June 2025, Brazil had the third largest number of climate litigation cases of any country in the world. To date, a total of 135 climate cases have been brought in Brazil—surpassing other major jurisdictions and trailing only the United States and Australia. Remarkably, the vast majority of these […]
In a powerful and precedent-setting advisory opinion, the European Free Trade Association (EFTA) Court has declared that European Union law—applicable pursuant to the European Economic Area (EEA) Agreement—prohibits the approval of fossil fuel projects without first assessing the global climate impacts of their emissions, including those generated when oil and […]
Maria Antonia Tigre and Susan Ann Samuel On May 2, 2025, a coalition of non-governmental organizations (NGOs), headed by the Pan African Lawyers Union (PALU), and in collaboration with the African Climate Platform, Resilient40, Natural Justice, and Environmental Lawyer Collective for Africa, submitted a petition to the African Court on […]
Lithium has become a cornerstone of the global energy transition, powering technologies central to decarbonization efforts, such as electric vehicle batteries and large-scale renewable energy storage. As demand for this critical mineral accelerates, mining activity has intensified across the so-called “lithium triangle” – Argentina, Bolivia, and Chile – a region […]
This post is part of a new Climate Law Blog series, 100 Days of Trump 2.0, in which the Sabin Center offers reflections on the first 100 days of President Trump’s second term across a variety of climate-related topics. To read other posts from the series, which will roll out over […]
On February 19, 2025, the Swedish Supreme Court dismissed the Aurora case (Anton Foley and others v Sweden), the first systemic climate change case brought in Sweden. The case is among the first in which a national apex court has applied the principles developed by the European Court of Human […]