Further Legal Angles

There are many additional arguments and strategies to be tested and pursued at the court. Moreover, many ongoing developments spread hope about the future of climate change litigation. Below is a non-exhaustive list. Are you interested in taking any of these up?

Shareholder lawsuits

• ‘In Poland, an environmental association bought shares in an energy company and sued the company as a shareholder from within (ClientEarth v. Enea). They claim that the Management Board and Supervisory Board’s decision to build a new coal power plant was a violation of fiduciary duties of care and a breach of the duty to act in the best interests of the companies and their shareholders, due to the climate-related financial risks of that power plant.’

Corporate and pension law

• Risk disclosure, insurance and investment are key words here. Investors and companies can actively contribute to the fight against climate change.
• Although it hasn't been brought up through litigation yet, export credit agencies put states at risk of litigation because of their financing of fossil fuels which could be illegal under international climate law

Holding the legal industry to account

• When it comes to the legal industry, a first principle of addressing the climate crisis could be "do no harm." An analysis by Law Students for Climate Availability looked at the top 100 law firms in the United States and found that the majority are doing far more work for clients exacerbating the climate crisis than those working to solve it. Often this work involves defending fossil fuel interests in litigation or lobbying on their behalf. Law students and lawyers have an opportunity to put pressure on their firms to adopt business practices that match the goals of the Paris Agreement.

Professional Development of Judges

• NGOs, like Client Earth create large scale change by training judges in environmental law and supporting the development of environmental courts, as for example in China.
• The World Commission on Environmental Law is working to create and compile a ‘Best Practice guide for Judges and Courts’.
• Amicus curiae briefs are another strategy to get your climate-unconscious judges up to speed.

Human Rights and Climate Change

• We are yet to see successful international cases brought to international courts and tribunals, such as the International Court of Justice, the International Criminal Court(ICC), or the Tribunal for the International Law of the Sea.

See also the Human Rights page on this wiki.

Intergenerational Equity

So far this is a concept within sustainable development and has been referred to in numerous high-level judgements. However, no climate cases have been decided on the basis of intergenerational equity alone.

Rights of Nature

• Rights of Nature
• Ecocide
• UN Harmony with Nature Chronology
• International Rights of Nature Tribunal
• Environmental personhood. Wikipedia.
• Nature as a legal person. Shelton, 2015.
• Who needs rights of Nature? Kersten, 2017.
• What if nature became a legal person? Toledo, 2020.

Developing new laws

This is another avenue that lawyers can explore, together with progressive forces in the political system, such as members of Climate Parliament or GLOBE. For example, the LPDD project is working on Model Laws for Deep Decarbonization] in the US.

Petitioning Corporations to release and follow concrete climate plans

Following up on their successful suit against Shell, *Milieudefensie et al. v. Royal Dutch Shell (Nigerian oil pollution case), Milieudefensie sent a letter to 30 Dutch companies, including Shell, demanding the companies cut emissions by 45% from 2019 levels by 2030. The letter set a deadline of April 15, 2022 for companies to submit their climate plans for review by the independent research agency, the NewClimate Institute. If a company fails to timely submit a climate plan or submits an inadequate plan, Milieudefensie has stated they are willing to sue.

Resources

Check out these pages and platforms and organizations to stay up-to-date:

• Climate litigation Network
• Pay Up Climate Polluters
• Climate Docket
• Newsletters by the Sabin Center at Columbia University
• Milieudefensie Letter to CEO Full Text