On April 9, 2024, the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) issued its first-ever findings concerning climate change. This post, part of a series on the ECtHR decisions, discusses Duarte Agostinho and Others v. 32 Member States. The case was brought by six youth applicants from Portugal, who alleged breaches […]
Global Climate Litigation
49 posts
States’ extraterritorial jurisdiction was one of the hot topics decided by the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) in Duarte Agostinho. Strictly speaking, the “lack of it” led the ECtHR to declare the complaint inadmissible with respect to all defendant States except Portugal. This finding is in line with previous […]
The much-awaited European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) Grand Chamber rulings in three key climate cases have arrived, with two ruled inadmissible (Carême v. France and Duarte Agostinho and Others v. Portugal and 32 Others) and one, brought by senior Swiss women, successful on the merits Verein KlimaSeniorinnen Schweiz and […]
The three much-awaited judgments issued by the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) on April 9, 2024 are truly historic and unprecedented. In Verein Klimaseniorinnen Schweiz and Others v. Switzerland, the Grand Chamber established that climate change is “one of the most pressing issues of our times” and poses a […]
In a transformative moment for European and global climate litigation, the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) ruled today that the state has a positive duty to adopt, and effectively implement in practice, regulations and measures capable of mitigating the existing and potentially irreversible future effects of climate change. In […]
We are in a critical decade for action on climate change. The world is on track to experience 3°C of warming and the “window of opportunity to secure a liveable and sustainable future for all” is rapidly closing. National governments are the most important systemic actors in the governance of […]
Litigation against major corporate greenhouse gas (GHG) emitters has proven extremely tough. Even as successful cases against governments have blossomed, private suits face significant barriers. A civil law breakthrough came in 2021, with the ruling of a Dutch court against Shell. In Smith v Fonterra, decided by New Zealand’s Supreme […]
Today, the Sabin Center published an end-of-year report on the state of climate change litigation in 2023. The report, titled Climate Change in the Courts: A 2023 Thematic Retrospective, examines key cases and rulings that have shaped the legal discourse on climate change in 2023 or that are poised to […]