From Negotiation to Adjudication : The Emerging Climate Litigation

There is a significant increase in the number of national and international laws on climate change today. At the same time, climate litigations challenging the inefficiencies and failures of national Governments in upholding the rights of the individuals are on the rise. On occasions where the States’ policies and planning decisions are not ambitious enough to prevent harmful interferences to the climate system, a new category of cases namely climate change litigation have emerged by the presence of numerous legal innovations. In many cases, they are challenged on the basis of constitutional and statutory provisions, not so specific to climate change, but often with the support of international climate agreements. There are also claims that seek to assign responsibility where adaptation efforts have failed to imbibe predictions and curb foreseeable and material harms. Cases involving climate change induced migration within and across national borders have already been raised before different adjudicatory forums and more and more are likely to come. Climate change litigation have gained more traction after the Paris Agreement and the inclusion of climate action in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The paper gives an overview of the trends in climate change litigations raised before various courts and adjudicatory forums across the world. The scope and ambit of climate change litigation along with its definition are examined in this paper. A selective study of global climate litigations has been made based on the different grounds under which climate change issue has been raised. The paper explores the approach of the judiciary towards climate change litigations and their impact on the domestic and global climate change law and governance