Boost climate action or we’ll see you court, activists warn governments

• Environmental groups say they have already initiated more than 80 legal actions to “compel” governments from the Netherlands to Brazil.
• Analysis: A quarter of the roughly 2,000 climate-related court claims filed since 1986 have been initiated since the start of 2020.
• And this will continue if they do not use the upcoming United Nations COP summit in Egypt to significantly increase their climate action.

Governments around the world must intensify climate action “or face further legal action,” an open statement from environmental advocacy groups warned on Tuesday, as disputes over measures to reduce emissions and protect the environment are increasingly challenged in court.

According to analysts, the quantity, extent, and goals of climate litigation are spreading, with an increasing number of cases filed against governments, ranging from legal efforts to persuade governments to do more to control fossil fuel emissions to court actions over firms’ deceptive green claims.

And this will continue if they do not use the upcoming United Nations COP summit in Egypt to significantly increase their climate action, according to an open letter signed by attorneys from more than 20 international organizations.

“Governments of the world: your delay is costing lives. Strong action is needed now to protect people and the planet,” a letter stated.

If you continue to fail us, we will continue to seek responsibility through the courts.

The organizations stated that they had already initiated more than eighty legal actions to “compel” governments from the Netherlands to Brazil, warning that the globe was on the “precipice of the most serious intergenerational violation of human rights in history.”

This year, the Grantham Research Institute at the London School of Economics discovered that about a quarter of the roughly 2,000 climate-related court claims filed since 1986 have been initiated since the start of 2020.

Since 2005, around 80 of these actions have been launched against national or subnational governments, with a record number of 30 new cases filed in 2021.

The Dutch government was ordered in 2019 to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by at least 25 percent by the end of 2020 as a result of the environmental group Urgenda’s historic victory in Dutch courts. The objective was met largely.

“Climate action is a legal duty. Yet governments are failing to comply with their own laws and commitments.” The letter was signed by Sarah Mead, co-director of Climate Litigation Network, part of the Urgenda Foundation.

“We want to make sure that countries understand that the law is on our side.”

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