With America’s first youth-led climate lawsuit scheduled to begin in a Montana court this June, a class action case against Australia by Torres Strait islanders, and numerous lawsuits against corporate climate culprits, climate change is very much on the docket for 2023.
This year, hearings and judgements around the world are “poised to throw light on the worst perpetrators, give victims a voice, and force recalcitrant governments and companies into action,” reports the Guardian.
Particularly closely watched will be Held vs. Montana, which will find 16 children and youth arguing that the state’s support for the fossil energy system is unconstitutional as it fails to protect key rights, like that to a healthy and clean environment.
Supported by the Oregon-based non-profit Our Children’s Trust, the litigants aged between five and 21 intend to argue that the ongoing climate breakdown resulting from the burning of fossil fuels damages critical resources like fresh water and the food web, resources which the state is duty-bound to hold in trust for the public.
“Never before has a climate change trial of this magnitude happened,” said Andrea Rodgers, senior litigation attorney with Our Children’s Trust. The case will receive global attention and is “set to influence the trajectory of climate change litigation.”
Held vs. Montana is scheduled for the last two weeks of June.
In Canada, seven youth activists await a ruling on Canada’s first climate lawsuit, in which they challenged the Ontario government’s retreat from its 2030 emissions targets as unconstitutional and in breach of numerous rights enshrined in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
A constitutional challenge to the construction of new coal-fired power stations is on the books in South Africa, while courts in Italy, Belgium, and France will be hearing cases that frame government climate inaction as a human rights issue.
June will also see a class-action case being brought before Australia’s federal court by two Torres Strait Islanders, Pabai Pabai and Guy Paul Kabai. They will be arguing that their multi-island homeland, much of which is part of the state of Queensland, will ultimately cease to exist thanks to a combination of sea level rise, storm surge, and erosion, unless Australia slashes its emissions 74% from 2005 levels by 2030. Australia is currently committed to a 26 to 28% emissions cut this decade.
Climate litigation against the corporate sector is also set to gain steam this year. Following December wins against a proposed thermal coal mine and a multi-billion-dollar offshore gas project, Australian climate activists now await a ruling on their challenge to another major gas project on grounds that its emissions will further endanger the Great Barrier Reef.
And in Brazil, a case brought by the NGO Conectas Direitos Humanos (CDH) will ask for a court mandate requiring the country’s national development bank, BNDES, to develop an emissions reduction plan to guide its investments. The case is a global first that “could have significant repercussions on wider climate finance,” the Guardian says.
Finally, in a letter last year, environmental law heavyweight ClientEarth has put Shell’s board of directors on notice that it plans to hold them liable if the London-based colossal fossil doesn’t get serious about climate risk.
