Guest Commentary: Indonesian Human Rights Commission’s first human rights complaint on the impacts of climate change By Margaretha Quina and Mae Manupipatpong* In July 2022, Indonesians at the frontline of climate change filed a claim before the National Human Rights Commission seeking recognition that climate change is a matter […]
Litigation
Guest Commentary: An Unexpected Success for Czech Climate Litigation Eva Balounová * Introduction On June 15, 2022, the Prague Municipal Court, a first instance administrative court, decided in favor of the plaintiffs in the first Czech strategic climate case (Klimatická žaloba ČR v. Czech Republic) and ordered the Czech Republic’s […]
United Nations Human Rights Committee finds that Australia is violating human rights obligations towards Torres Strait Islanders for climate inaction By Maria Antonia Tigre On September 23, 2022, the United Nations Human Rights Committee (UNHRC) delivered a landmark decision in Daniel Billy and others v Australia (Torres Strait Islanders […]
Guest Commentary: Legal action in a time of climate crisis By Katie de Kauwe and Millie John-Pierre* On July 18, 2022, one of the hottest days on record in the UK, an equally ground-breaking judgment was handed down by the High Court of England and Wales in R (Friends of […]
By Jacob Elkin While the most prominent climate litigation to date has primarily focused on mitigation—reducing greenhouse gas emissions—adaptation litigation will also increase as climate impacts become more frequent, extreme, and intense. Adaptation cases frequently rely on evidence drawn from scientific research into past and future climate change. In a […]
By Marlies Hesselman* The first week of July 2022 brought on several major developments in climate litigation in the Netherlands, with possibly significant ramifications for a new type of global climate litigation. After landmark decisions in Urgenda and Shell, plaintiffs are asking a Dutch court to weigh in on a […]
By Maria Antonia Tigre While the United States Supreme Court yesterday delivered a major setback to the EPA’s ability to regulate greenhouse gas emissions in West Virginia. v. EPA, courts in other countries this week have issued decisions that demonstrate that courts worldwide remain an important forum for the potential […]
By Pedro Cisterna-Gaete and Maria Antonia Tigre In March 2022, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) and the Office of the Special Rapporteur on Economic, Social, Cultural and Environmental Rights (REDESCA) jointly published Resolution No. 3/21, entitled Climate Emergency: Scope of Inter-American human rights obligations. The resolution’s purpose is […]