Feeling the heat

There’s a global movement of people seeking ‘climate justice’ in courts.

PARis: People around the world beset by the impacts of global warming like droughts, heat waves and storm surges are calling for “climate justice”, and many are pleading their cases in court.

Globally, there are at least 1,000 active legal cases related to climate change, more than two-thirds of them in the United States, according to a recent tally from the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment, in London.

A summit tomorrow in Paris – with more than 50 heads of state attending – on how to finance the transition to a low-carbon economy will be followed the next day by a climate justice forum.

The climate justice movement highlights the fact that rich nations are overwhelmingly to blame for causing climate change, but that poor ones have been the first to cope with its impacts.

The 1992 UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) recognised that inequality, declaring that developed countries bear a larger responsibility for fixing the problem.

After a climate justice “summit” in The Hague in 2000, a coalition of global non-governmental organisations (NGOs) – which play a crucial role in channelling grassroots activism – adopted 27 principles.

These included the right to not suffer climate change impacts, a moratorium on new fossil fuel exploration, access to affordable and sustainable energy, the notion that rich nations and industry owe humanity an “ecological debt”.

“Climate justice affirms the rights of unborn generations to natural resources, a stable climate and a healthy planet,” they declared.

These ideas slowly gravitated from the fringes toward the centre of formal UN negotiations – and finally into the preamble of the 2015 Paris Agreement, the 196-nation treaty that enjoins the world to cap global warming at “well under” 2°C.

In parallel to the diplomatic arena, citizens and civic groups also tested the concept’s power within a legal framework.

Some plaintiffs have targeted governments, while others have taken on individual companies. The Paris Agreement “recognises the importance ... of addressing loss and damage” caused by climate change, and has set up a mechanism to do so.

At the same time, however, this provision “does not involve or provide a basis for any liability or compensation”, according to a “decision” annexed to the treaty.

As some island nations literally sink beneath rising seas, pressure is mounting for a clear commitment for the rescue of climate-damaged economies and societies. —