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Your monthly news on Climate Law
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CLIMATE LAW INSIDER
Newsletter 8/2021, 07 July 2021
List of Contents
- LSE’s Grantham Research Institute Publishes Report on Global Trends in Climate Litigation
- A High Court in Bangladesh Orders the Government to Mainstream Renewable Energy
- Australia: State has a Duty to Avoid Causing Children Harm when Approving New Coal Project
- Fit for 55: European Commission Publishes Proposals to Reform its Climate Policies
- Climate finance: Paris Agreement Requires Shift in Investments
- Deep Decarbonisation Possible, But Currently Not Plausible – Researchers Find
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- LSE’s Grantham Research Institute Publishes Report on Global Trends in Climate Litigation -
On 2 July 2021, the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment, at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), published its third report on Global trends in climate litigation seriesGlobal trends in climate litigation series, providing a synthesis of cases by numbers and metrics categorisations, whilst considering some of the most relevant trends in the arguments and strategies employed by litigants. The focus is on cases filed or concluded between May 2020 and May 2021. Some of the key messages of the report include the fact that climate litigation continues to grow. Over 1,000 cases have been brought in the last six years compared to over 800 cases filed between 1986 and 2014. In addition, ‘strategic’ cases for the concretisation of climate goals are on the rise and are finding success. These cases now include a wider variety of private sector and financial actors. The report also anticipates three focus areas for future climate litigation, namely cases of government support to the fossil fuel industry and cases focused on the distribution of the burdens associated with a ‘just transition’.
Learn more: https://www.lse.ac.uk/granthaminstitute/publication/global-trends-in-climate-litigation-2021-snapshot/
- A High Court in Bangladesh Orders the Government to Mainstream Renewable Energy -
A Court in Bangladesh ruled in favour of a petition filed by the Bangladesh Environment Lawyers Association (BELA) that sought to protect wetland habitats by ordering the government to develop a total renewable energy transition plan. The Court said Dhaka should formulate a renewable energy act, establish a renewables ministry and a renewable energy commission to expedite clean power generation. According to experts on renewable energy, the creation of a specialized governmental agency for the promotion of renewable energy is a very positive and coherent aspect of the ruling. At present, clean energy is within the remit of Bangladesh's Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources, whose focus is still anchored in fossil fuels. Overall, this is a positive precedent because it links the protection of vulnerable ecosystems with a developing country’s national energy transition.
Learn more: https://sozd.duma.gov.ru/bill/1116605-7
- Australia: State has a Duty to Avoid Causing Children Harm when Approving New Coal Project -
In Sharma v Minister for the Environment an Australian federal court made a declaration on the 8th of July that the Minister has a duty to take reasonable care to avoid causing personal injury or death to minors arising from CO2 emissions which will exacerbate climate change. At the centre of the litigation filed by eight high school students lies the pending approval of Whiteheaven Voal’s Vickery coal mine extension project in New South Wales. The Court previously found that emissions from the expansion would foreseeably expose children to a risk of injury and death in its ruling in May this year. The Environment Minister must now proceed with the approval process in a way that respects the Court’s order. Lawyer for the students, David Barnden, said, "Today's historical outcome provides a safe harbour for the Environment Minister to act sensibly to not only protect the environment, but to ensure that she does not increase the risk of death and injury to children by approving new coal mines.”
Learn more: https://www.clientearth.org/latest/latest-updates/news/why-five-polish-citizens-are-taking-their-government-to-court-over-climate-change?utm_source=poland-rights&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=email&utm_content=body-button
- Fit for 55: European Commission Publishes Proposals to Reform its Climate Policies -
In mid-July, the European Commission published its long-awaited plans to reform key climate policy instruments to align with the new 2030 target (-55%) and climate neutrality by 2050. The so-called "Fit-for-55" package is the prelude to an extensive set of legislative processes under the umbrella of the "EU Green Deal". The Commission proposed a long list of reforms, including a more ambitious Emission Trading Scheme by integrating aviation and shipping and lowering the overall emissions cap, as well as establishing a separate market for emissions from transport and heating (proposal), a reform of the Effort Sharing Regulation to regulate differentiated efforts across Member States (proposal), and revised land use, land-use change, and forestry (LULUCF) including a specific target for carbon removal (proposal). However, the legislative process has only just begun. Read here why the reforms contained in the new proposals are best described as "squaring the circle" – long nights of negotiations in Brussels are to be expected.
Learn more: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/jun/16/climate-activists-take-norway-european-human-rights-court-arctic-oil-drilling-plans
- Climate finance: Paris Agreement Requires Shift in Investments -
Researchers find that achieving the Paris Agreement temperature targets requires a fundamental shift of energy investments in the coming decade. In particular, the team led by Bertram, argues that decisive changes compared to current investment patterns (and different from patterns implied by current NDCs) are necessary. First and foremost, fossil fuel investments in coal must be fundamentally reduced. Investments into solar and wind, as well as into related electricity transmission, distribution and storage would have to increase substantially. This research provides new evidence of the investment needs highlighted by the IPCC Special Report on 1.5°C and the UNEP Emissions Gap Reports – it might help raise the profile of this crucial issue in international negotiations and domestic climate policy making.
Learn more: https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/ac09ae/meta
- Deep Decarbonisation Possible, But Currently Not Plausible – Researchers Find -
A multi-disciplinary team of researchers from the University of Hamburg published an assessment of the “plausibility” of deep decarbonisation by 2050. Their key finding: deep decarbonization by 2050 is currently not plausible. Their analysis is based on complementary assessments of physical and social dynamics. To assess the latter, the team proposes a set of ten social drivers. The drivers include, among others: climate litigation, climate-related regulation, and United Nations climate governance. The assessment shows that these three are among those drivers that already support decarbonisation, but without sufficient momentum to achieve deep decarbonization by 2050. In general, the assessment adds to the evidence speaking against the overall plausibility of very low emissions scenarios. At the same time, however, the report highlights that social agency, e.g. public pressure via protests, organised action, and climate litigation, can always produce departures from expected trajectories.
Learn more: https://www.cliccs.uni-hamburg.de/results/hamburg-climate-futures-outlook.html
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