World-wide Local climate Litigation Report: 2023 Standing Assessment | UNEP

Climate litigation represents a frontier answer to alter the dynamics of the struggle towards local weather improve. This Worldwide Climate Litigation Report: 2023 Status Evaluate exhibits that people today are ever more turning to the courts to beat the climate crisis. As of December 2022, there have been 2,180 local climate-related instances filed in 65 jurisdictions, including international and regional courts, tribunals, quasi-judicial bodies, or other adjudicatory bodies, these types of as Unique Processes at the United Nations and arbitration tribunals. This represents a continuous boost from 884 instances in 2017 and 1,550 instances in 2020. Young children and youth, women’s groups, local communities, and Indigenous Peoples, among the others, are having a popular function in bringing these cases and driving local climate improve governance reform in a lot more and much more countries all over the environment.

This report, which updates preceding United Nations Surroundings Programme studies posted in 2017 and 2020, gives an overview of the present-day point out of local weather improve litigation and an update on world-wide local weather adjust litigation traits. It supplies judges, legal professionals, advocates, policymakers, scientists, environmental defenders, local climate activists, human rights activists (including women’s rights activists), NGOs, enterprises and the intercontinental local community at massive with an important source to fully grasp the present-day point out of world wide climate litigation, such as descriptions of the important difficulties that courts have faced in the system of weather change scenarios.

This report further more demonstrates the importance of an environmental rule of law in combating the triple planetary crises of local climate alter, biodiversity reduction and pollution. Entry to justice allows the security of environmental regulation and human rights and promotes accountability in general public institutions. The report was launched in conjunction with the anniversary of the United Nations General Assembly’s recognition of the human right to a clean, balanced and sustainable surroundings (A/RES/76/300), as the the greater part of conditions brought before the courts exhibit concrete backlinks involving human legal rights and weather alter. The UNGA resolution, which recognises that local climate adjust impacts have detrimental implications on the enjoyment of all human legal rights, is likely to drive even more motion on local climate improve in the long run.

Associated publications

The Environmental Rule of Law: Initial Worldwide Report

World wide Local weather Litigation Report: 2020 Position Evaluation

The Standing of Climate Modify Litigation: A World wide Critique