Strategies

Strategies used by courts and litigants around the world in rights-based climate litigation

Affirming country / corporate responsibility for their ‘fair share’ of emission reductions, regardless of the actions of other countries or corporations.

Petitioners and / or the court argues that countries / corporations are responsible for a certain amount of greenhouse gas emissions that are consistent with a given metric of fairness, regardless of what other countries or corporations do.
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Applying a developed body of law in the context of climate change

The petitioners and / or the court takes a long-developed body of law - like, for example, tort law - and applies it to the issues raised by climate change.
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Articulating an obligation to cooperate internationally

The petition and / or the court decision provides that countries have a duty to cooperate with each other on climate change at the international level.
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Bringing the case in a more favorable venue / jurisdiction.

The petitioners bring the case to a court or reviewing body that is more likely to be receptive to their claims.
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Centering rights

Constitutional, statutory, and / or human rights are important features of the case.
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Challenging a fossil fuel project

The case targets a fossil fuel project like a coal mine or an oil pipeline.
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Emphasizing the urgency of taking climate action now, given the compounding and permanent effects of climate change as time progresses

The petitioners and / or the court emphasize the fact that the window of time left to prevent the catastrophic effects of too much warming is closing, especially since carbon dioxide - once emitted - remains in the atmosphere for centuries. In other words, CO2 emissions are permanent over human timescales, which underscores how climate action is urgently needed to avoid locking in dangerous levels of global warming.
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Focusing on youth and future generations

Younger and future generations play an essential role in the case, including as petitioners and by making youth-oriented claims and arguments.
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Providing an inclusive definition of the greenhouse gas emissions for which countries / corporations are responsible

Providing a wide definition of the greenhouse gas emissions that can be attributed to a country / corporation in order to prevent that country or corporation from avoiding responsibility for emissions.
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Shifting the presumption of proving the adequacy of the countries’ / corporations' climate actions to the respondent countries / corporations

Petitioners and / or the court argue that the country / corporation should be responsible for justifying its climate actions in the first instance - the petitioners shouldn't, in the first instance, be required to prove why the country's / corporation's actions on climate change are inadequate.
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Tying countries' / corporations' climate and human rights obligations to international climate and environmental law, including, for example, the temperature target established by the Paris Agreement

Countries / corporations obligations on climate change and human rights are informed by international environmental and climate law, particularly the Paris Agreement.
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Using a carbon budget

The case uses a carbon budget in its reasoning.
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Using human rights as interpretative guidance when corporations don't have direct positive human rights obligations

Petitioners and / or the court argue that human rights can guide interpretations of requirements with which corporations must comply, even when corporations don't have direct positive human rights obligations.
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Utilizing a variety of legal arguments to increase the likelihood that one such argument will succeed in front of the court

The petition includes a variety of claims from different bodies of law - ranging, for example, from administrative law to environmental law to tort law to human rights law - in order to increase the chance that the reviewing court will react positively to at least one of the arguments.
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