Submission to UN Special Rapporteur consultation on the role of justice systems in addressing the climate crisis

This submission to the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers responds to the call for written inputs for her thematic report on the role of justice systems in addressing the climate crisis, to be presented at the 81st session of the UN General Assembly.

Key messages

• Courts have a breadth of remedies available in climate cases, but there is limited systematic evidence regarding which forms of relief are most effective in terms of achieving mitigation and adaptation outcomes.
• Direct orders requiring governments or companies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions remain relatively rare and difficult to obtain due to persistent concerns about judicial climate competence and the separation of powers.
• Courts have shown considerable willingness to require governments to strengthen their climate governance frameworks, including setting clearer targets and improving legislation.
• Pursuing claims on incorporating climate considerations into existing administrative processes like environmental impact assessments has proven a potentially effective way to enhance climate action.
• An expanding body of climate-specific and other business and human rights case law, grounded in a duty of care and ‘polluter pays’ principles, provides a promising route for holding corporations accountable for contributions to climate change and securing compensation for climate-related harm.
• Judiciaries show some caution in cases that raise politically sensitive and technically complex issues, such as determining fair shares of global emissions reductions.
• Enhancing judicial climate competence requires sustained investment in training. New toolkits and guides from the Grantham Research Institute and other experts can help.
• Lawyers play a central role in climate action through, inter alia, advocacy in a vast and growing number of climate lawsuits. But they are increasingly challenged by a confluence of threats: anti-climate backlash, democratic backsliding, deregulation, and shrinking civic and judicial space. In this context, climate lawyers face harassment in the form of strategic lawsuits against public participation (SLAPPs) – and even violence and death.