Pakistan judge orders state to enforce climate policies
Landmark ruling meant to tackle country’s ‘most serious threat’
When a Netherlands court ordered the government to do more to combat climate change, the decision was hailed as historic and a game changer, and experts predicted it would happen again, and again.
But no one thought it would happen so soon, or in Pakistan.
A feisty Pakistani judge recently directed the government to enforce its climate-change policy and establish a climate change commission to oversee the process. He also ordered government representatives to appear before the court to explain what was being done to meet the country’s climate challenges.
And he wasn’t done. In a second ruling, the judge named 21 people to the commission. He raised issues such as adaptation measures in the water and agricultural sectors, changes in how rivers flow, land degradation and extreme weather events.
“Pakistan was nowhere in the list of my countries where I would have expected to see this kind of a ruling,” said Michael Gerrard of the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law at Columbia Law School.
Each successful ruling motivates people in other countries to try it, he said. “You know, it is useful to be able to say to a judge that you are not the first one to do this. Others have already done it. Having a precedent is not binding, but it’s helpful.”
The decision resulted from an independent farmer, Asghar Leghari, bringing a public-interest litigation case to the Lahore High Court. He argued that the government had neglected the implementation of its own climate policy as defined in the 2012 National Climate Policy and Framework.
Quoting from the policy, the farmer said that climate change threats have led to “major survival concerns for Pakistan, particularly in relation to the country’s water security, food security and energy security.” Judge Syed Mansoor Ali Shah found that “the delay and lethargy of the state in implementing the framework offend the fundamental rights of the citizens.”
Climate change “appears the most serious threat faced by Pakistan,” the judge said, handing down the ruling that is being hailed as extraordinary.
Pakistan, the United Nations has said, is among the most vulnerable of countries to climate change.
David Estrin, who specializes in environmental law and is a senior research fellow at the Centre for International Governance Innovation in Waterloo, said the ruling matters, and predicted the ruling would be implemented.
Courts in India and Pakistan have been very activist in nature, he noted, and take a hands-on, supervisory role.
“India’s Supreme Court issued an order requiring municipalities to convert their fleet of buses from diesel to natural gas. They also have the ability to establish commissions and ensure that the government provides the money,” Estrin said.
“I think people are going to go to the court substantially now (more) than they have,” he noted, adding that politicians are elected for a few years and people have realized that they don’t take strong stands. “So yes, we will see more and more court challenges to ensure climate justice in future.”
The Pakistani ruling is significant for Canada, too, said Lynda Collins, a professor at the University of Ottawa’s Centre for Environmental Law and Global Sustainability.
“We could certainly see a similar lawsuit in Canada, with a similar result,” she said. “Like Pakistan and Holland, our Charter protects the rights to life and security of the person, and federal inaction on climate change is a clear threat to both.”
In environmental law circles, experts are impressed by the precedent-setting Pakistani judge.
“To an American lawyer like me, that a court gave such specific direction to agencies and went as far as to establish the name and members of the commission — that was amazing,” said Columbia’s Gerrard.