Dr. Marie Petersmann’s work on irreparable socio-ecological harm—problematising the legal form of ‘reparation’ and exploring alternative processes of community and ecological repair, using the pending Inclusive Louisiana et al. v. St. James Parish et al. case in Cancer Alley (Louisiana, US) as an example—was cited by UN Special Rapporteur Elisa Morgera in her latest Report ‘The Imperative of Defossilizing our Economies’ (A/HRC/59/42, 15 May 2025). Morgera is UN Special Rapporteur on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights in the Context of Climate Change.
The report calls for the urgent defossilisation of our economies as part of a just, effective, and transformative transition. It emphasises the need to address fossil fuels beyond the energy sector through system-wide transformation. This approach seeks to overcome a narrow ‘carbon tunnel vision’ and to prevent biodiversity loss and toxic pollution across the entire fossil fuel life cycle, while accounting for the interconnected climate–biodiversity–water–food–health nexus.