Climate emergency and the emergence of climate litigation

To what extent is litigation a suitable tool in fortifying climatic governance? Read the article from the column Direito e Clima in JOTA

In partnership with JOTA and with the support of the Climate and Society Institute (ICS), in a few months Conectas will be publishing a series of articles that will seek to foster the dissemination of legal content in the field of law and climate. National and international specialists will discuss themes related to climate change and human rights, international legal regulations on climate change, sustainable financing, strategic litigation, regulation of trading in greenhouse gas emissions, among others.

 

Take a look at the article in the series written by: Joana Setzer, Lawyer and Researcher at the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment, at the London School of Economics and Political Science (GRI/LSE); Kamyla Cunha,  Post-doctoral student in Law at the Pontifícia Universidade Católica in Santos with a doctorate and a masters in Planning of Energy Systems at the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering at UNICAMP and Amália Botter Fabbri, Researcher on the Applied Research Group on the Environment at the Universidade de São Paulo (GEAMA-USP).

The last special report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) on global warming of 1.5 °C, published in October 2018, is currently the most important scientific text on climate change. The document has been approved by 195 governments and it highlights the small window of opportunity we have in order to avoid a climatic emergency. Despite the consolidated opinion of climate scientists and government efforts and the participation of the private sector, the response in developed and developing countries has not been sufficient to instil an ambitious, consistent, robust reaction to the current environmental and climatic crisis.

• Read the article in full.