Human rights-based climate change litigation is a fast-growing trend: between 2015 and mid-2020, 40 such cases were brought before national courts and international bodies. An increasing proportion of cases are being brought by young people on behalf of future generations.
This briefing paper cites a number of prominent, recent examples to show how activists are challenging not just inaction on climate change, but also governments’ failure to honour existing commitments and climate change strategies that themselves contribute to human rights violations.
The trend is likely to continue, as governments and corporations come under greater pressure to do their ‘fair share’ to mitigate climate change. Human rights law will increasingly be invoked in court as part of efforts to hold them to account for the impact of climate change on the fundamental rights of citizens past, present and future.
