The World Takes Climate Change To Court

Climate Change Warriors’ Latest Weapon of Choice Is Litigation

Jeremy Hodges, Lauren Leatherby and Kartikay Mehrotra, May 24, 2018 (Bloomberg News)

“In the global fight against climate change, one tool is proving increasingly popular: litigation…From California to the Philippines, activists, governments and concerned citizens are suing the biggest polluters and national governments over the effects of climate change at a break-neck pace…[Our Children’s Trust, a legal challenge center in the U.S.,] is involved in climate change litigation across 13 countries, including the U.S., Pakistan and Uganda…The wave of activity is about channeling the fervor of a social movement to drive change via the legal system. The arguments vary…In Europe, it’s largely governments being hammered over pollution-reduction plans that fall short of EU targets…

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[Increasingly,] cases are using human rights arguments, in which plaintiffs make the case that climate change has threatened or taken away populations’ basic rights to shelter, health, food, water and even life. From Ugandan children who sued their government for failing to protect them from climate change to hundreds of elderly Swiss women who sued the country for failure to shield them from climate change’s effects, human rights cases are a small but growing approach to this type of litigation…The strategy has paid off particularly well in the U.K. and Germany, where suits have forced significant government policy changes…” click here for more

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