Climate Law Blog

This month, Jacob Elkin joins the Sabin Center as the 2021-2022 Climate Law Fellow. His work at the Sabin Center will include the Renewable Energy Legal Defense Initiative, the Climate Attribution Database, the Climate Reregulation Tracker, the New York State and City Climate Law Trackers, as well as submitting comment letters on administrative proceedings. Jacob […]

By Korey Silverman-Roati and Maria Antonia Tigre On November 22, 2022, sixteen municipalities of Puerto Rico filed a lawsuit in the federal district court in Puerto Rico seeking to hold coal, oil, and gas companies liable for losses resulting from storms during the 2017 hurricane season and ongoing economic losses since that time. In Municipalities […]

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 of human rights and calling […]

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 ministries to take specific measures […]

Guest Commentary: The Role of Human Rights Institutions In Tackling Climate Change: A Case Study of the Philippines Antoine De Spiegeleir, PhD researcher at the European University Institute* Maria Antonia Tigre, Global Climate Litigation Fellow, Sabin Center for Climate Change Law   Introduction Earlier this year, the Commission on Human Rights of the Philippines released […]

By Will Donaldson* On June 15, 2022, the Municipal Court of Prague sided with a Czech climate NGO in Klimatická žaloba ČR v. Czech Republic, ordering the Czech government to create a more ambitious emissions reduction plan based on its obligations under the Paris Agreement (Press Release of Czech Climate Litigation). The Court drew on […]

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 Petition) finding that the Australian […]

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 the Earth Ltd and Others) […]

Czech Republic-Poland’s dispute over the Turów mine: Financial implications and lost opportunities for just transition in Poland By Marcin Stoczkiewicz*  One of the most interesting environmental legal disputes in the European Union was recently settled between the Czech Republic and Poland before the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) (Case C-121/21). Czech Republic […]

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 case that forms part of […]