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Accelerating Climate Justice: Key Lessons from Roundtables with Experts in Youth-Focused Litigation
22nd May 2025
As the climate crisis deepens and in the face of flailing global governance, young generations are increasingly turning to courts to advocate for their right to a healthy environment. Traditionally viewed as mechanisms of 'last resort', courts are evolving into 'first responders'—actionable spaces where youth can effectively assert their rights. Unlike adults, young people often face significant barriers to engaging in political processes. Children sit outside most accountability processes,…
Climate Law and Litigation BlogIntergenerational Equity and Climate Protection: The Role of Brazilian Supreme Court Jurisprudence
22nd May 2025
The growing awareness of the progressive depletion of natural resources and the finite capacity of our planet to absorb the consequences of human activity casts a stark light upon the biosphere's ability to sustain both present and future life amidst the relentless incursions of mankind. This predicament, fraught with intergenerational tensions, calls for solutions that transcend conventional conceptions of justice. Against this backdrop, the principle of intergenerational equity emerges as…
Climate Law and Litigation BlogIntergenerational Equity for Climate Justice in Africa: The Role of Activism and Climate Litigation
22nd May 2025
Africa is bearing the brunt of the climate crisis despite its minimal contribution to it. The continent is heating up slightly faster than the rest of the world, placing children in 98% of African countries at high or extremely high risk from climate impacts. Prolonged droughts in the Horn of Africa and southern Africa, along with intensifying cyclones and floods are devastating communities and threatening the survival of current and future generations. Addressing these challenges requires…
Climate Law and Litigation BlogThe Omnibus Package: A Simplification of EU Legislation or a Step Backward in Achieving Climate Goals?
22nd May 2025
The Commission's Omnibus initiative, announced on 26 February 2025, aims to amend several pieces of legislation in the areas of sustainability due diligence and reporting, taxonomy and investment programmes. The first package of proposals (Omnibus I) covers, among others, the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD) and the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD). Omnibus I is intended to simplify sustainability requirements, reduce administrative burdens,…
Climate Law and Litigation BlogClimate Lawsuits as a Social Corrective: How Companies Underestimate the Financial Risk of Climate Litigation
22nd May 2025
It is estimated that over €10 billion in damage was caused by the floods in Spain in 2024 and an estimated $500 billion in total damage and economic loss in the U.S. following the 2024 Atlantic hurricane season. These figures can only hint at the enormous human hardships brought about by severe weather events - events whose severity and likelihood are increased due to climate change. However, these figures illustrate what companies and the financial sector are finally starting…
Climate Law and Litigation BlogMore on the Omnibus Package and the Future of European Global Leadership on Sustainability
22nd May 2025
EU Omnibus Package: The 'Stop-the-clock' Directive The EU Omnibus Package on sustainability aims to 'reduce compliance burdens' associated with sustainable finance (EU Taxonomy; Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM)), sustainability reporting (Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD)) and due diligence obligations (Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD)). The initiative was driven by high-level political commitments, such as the Budapest Declaration…
Climate Law and Litigation BlogThe Shell Case and the Corporate Climate Transition Plan Obligation
22nd May 2025
The Corporate Transition Plan Obligation The current version of the European Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (hereafter: CSDDD) stipulates that corporations must adopt and put into effect a transition plan for climate change mitigation (Article 22 CSDDD). This plan aims to ensure, through best efforts, that a company's business model and strategy are compatible with the Paris goal of limiting global warming to 1.5°C and the European climate goals (particularly climate…
Climate Law and Litigation BlogEditor's Note to the Second Issue of the BIICL Climate Law and Litigation Blog Series
21st May 2025
Becoming Good Ancestors: Courts, Corporations, and Intergenerational Equity "Our greatest responsibility is to be good ancestors." — Jonas Salk In an era of unprecedented climate risk, these words echo with a simple yet profound truth, resonating deeply in our time of ecological reckoning. More than an ethical ideal, this principle has increasingly found expression in law, asking us to reimagine our responsibilities—not just to each other, but to generations yet unborn. This second installment…
Climate Law and Litigation BlogKenya’s Climate Change (Carbon Markets) Regulations 2024 as a Tool for Climate Change Litigation
11th December 2024
On 7 June 2024, Kenya gazetted the Climate Change (Carbon Markets) Regulations 2024 under the Climate Change Act 2016. Kenya is one of only eight African countries that have enacted carbon market regulations. These regulations are intended to bring order to a previously unregulated carbon crediting programme. The regulatory hiatus exposed vulnerable communities to negative social and environmental impacts arising from carbon projects (See Simon Counsell "Blood Carbon: How A Carbon Offset…
Climate Law and Litigation BlogLitigating Climate Change in the Global South
11th December 2024
While climate change litigation in developed countries of the 'Global North' is a well-studied phenomenon, relatively few studies focus on climate case law emerging in the Global South, its distinctive characteristics and the contribution it is making, and may make, to implementation of international climate laws like the Paris Agreement. Drawing on our earlier research, Litigating Climate Change in the Global South is the first monograph-length work in the English language to provide…
Climate Law and Litigation BlogShifting the Mitigation Burden: Outcomes and Implementation Opportunities of the Landmark South Korean Climate Case
11th December 2024
In August 2024, the Constitutional Court of Korea broke new ground in climate change litigation by finding Article 8(1) of South Korea's Carbon Neutrality Framework Act in violation of the right to a healthy environment. The ruling in Do-Hyun Kim et al v South Korea marks the first victory in East Asia for plaintiffs in a 'framework' case - which challenge governments' overall efforts to mitigate climate change - and aligns considerably with the findings of similar landmark decisions…
Climate Law and Litigation BlogAdvancing Climate Justice through Creative Lawyering: Lessons from the Global South
11th December 2024
The Global South, encompassing much of the developing world, stands at the forefront of experiencing the devastating impacts of climate change. As highlighted during the recently concluded 29th Conference of the Parties (COP29), developing countries are advocating for increased support and funding to both mitigate and adapt to the rapidly changing climate. Furthermore, the most vulnerable and marginalized populations are increasingly seeking legal remedies through courts and other tribunals to…
Climate Law and Litigation BlogThe Strength of the Courts to Take a Comprehensive, Long-Term View in Japan: Lessons from the Kobe Case
11th December 2024
Conclusion of Kobe Civil Litigation Appeal Trial and its Background On October 23, 2024, the Osaka High Court concluded the Kobe civil case. This case is the second climate change case in Japan, filed in September 2018, following the Sendai case filed in September 2017. However, in the Sendai case, the issue of climate change was excluded at an early stage of the first instance by the presiding judge's suggestion. Therefore, this case is the first substantive climate change lawsuit in Japan.…
Climate Law and Litigation BlogShell v Milieudefensie: Sowing the Seeds for Future Climate Litigation against Fossil Fuel Producers
11th December 2024
The Hague Court of Appeal's ruling in Shell v Milieudefensie was, strictly speaking, a win for Shell: it overturned the specific emissions reduction target imposed on Shell by the District Court of The Hague. However, the appeal judgment also sows the seeds for future litigation against fossil fuel companies. Background The case was brought by a group of environmental NGOs led by Milieudefensie (Friends of the Earth Netherlands) in 2019, claiming that Shell had committed a tort by breaching…
Climate Law and Litigation BlogThe Brazilian Supreme Court and the Climate Fund Case
11th December 2024
In PSB et al v Brazil, several Brazilian political parties (the Partido dos Trabalhadores (PT), the Partido Socialismo e Liberdade (PSOL), the Partido Socialista Brasileiro (PSB) and Rede Sustentabilidade) filed a Direct Action of Unconstitutionality by Omission (case number ADO 60) in the Federal Supreme Court of Brazil, which was subsequently admitted by the Court under a different constitutional action - an Action for Breach of a Fundamental Precept (case number ADPF 708). The claimants…
Climate Law and Litigation BlogIntroducing the BIICL Climate Law and Litigation Blog: Bridging Global Perspectives and Legal Innovation
10th December 2024
We are proud to introduce the Climate Law and Litigation (CLL) Blog, a pioneering initiative by the British Institute of International and Comparative Law (BIICL). This platform builds on BIICL's growing expertise in Climate Change Law and Litigation, providing a collaborative space for thought leadership and interdisciplinary dialogue. The CLL blog will feature contributions from leading experts across every continent, including contributions drawn from over 200 practitioners, academics,…
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