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Your monthly news on Climate Law
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CLIMATE LAW INSIDER
Newsletter 10/2021, 12 October 2021
List of Contents
- The World Lawyers Pledge on Climate Action
- PreCop26 and Youth4Climate summit in Milan
- German NGOs announce legal action against major automobile groups
- Australian NGO Sues Local Government for Neglecting Climate Concerns in River Management
- ‘Historical Ruling’ in Mexico Against EDF’s Windfarm Project that Affects Local Communities
- The World Lawyers Pledge on Climate Action -
Throughout September, more than 550 lawyers and members of the legal community signed the “World Lawyers’ Pledge on Climate Action” – a call to take personal and institutional responsibility as members of the legal community in the fight against the climate crisis. The key objective is to “cultivate a heightened awareness of the relevance of our activities to climate change and vice versa, and seek to integrate, address, and mitigate climate concerns throughout our professional life.” The initiators aim at “mainstreaming and integrating climate concerns into all areas of law and legal activity” and to “initiate, foster, and sustain the structural transformations necessary to avert climate catastrophe.” While receiving significant attention in the legal community and the wider public, an instructive discussion emerged about self-conception and the role of the legal community in societal transformation (e.g. a comment by Benoit Mayer “Why I Can’t Sign the World Lawyers’ Pledge on Climate Action”
Learn more: https://www.ipcc.ch/report/sixth-assessment-report-working-group-i/
- PreCop26 and Youth4Climate summit in Milan -
In preparation for COP26 in Glasgow, which starts on October 31, delegations and youth representatives met in Milan to prepare and set expectations for the upcoming climate summit. While behind the scenes negotiators are working hard to meet the high expectations of COP26, especially by aiming to convince major high GHG emitters like India and China to update their NDCs, youth activists criticize the "blah blah blah" that most net zero pledges are (see G. Thunberg’s speech at the Youth4Climate summit). The huge ambition gap, also illustrated by the recent UNFCCC assessment of current NDCs, will once again shape the UNFCCC negotiations and related discussions. Observers, however, are sceptical that a breakthrough will be achieved.
Learn more: https://unfccc.int/documents/306872
- German NGOs announce legal action against major automobile groups -
In September, after the groundbreaking decision of the Dutch District Court of the Hague that Shell must reduce its CO2 emissions, the German environmental NGOs Greenpeace and Deutsche Umwelthilfe (DUH) initiated legal action against the private sector in Germany. Prior to legal action, attorneys for the executive directors of DUH sent letters to the automobile groups BMW and Mercedes Benz, asking the corporations to cease manufacture of CO2-emitting vehicles by October 2030. The claim for injunctive relief is based on § 1004 of the German Civil Code, a norm central to the climate case Lliuya v. RWE, and further builds upon the successful climate decision of the German Constitutional Court earlier this year. In that decision the Constitutional Court embraced the long term temperature goal of the Paris Agreement and the concept of a remaining national carbon budget. A similar cease-and-desist letter was sent to the oil and gas company Wintershall Dea, asking the firm not to exceed its share of the remaining carbon budget. Since the companies did not respond, the claimants brought legal proceedings before a court. Similar to DUH’s action against BMW and Mercedes Benz, Greenpeace has taken action against the automobile group Volkswagen AG. Greenpeace’s attorney Roda Verheyen: “Private Law can and must prevent that corporations destroy our livelihoods and take our children’s and grandchildren’s right to a safe future.”
Learn more: https://www.bundesverfassungsgericht.de/SharedDocs/Pressemitteilungen/EN/2021/bvg21-031.html
- Australian NGO Sues Local Government for Neglecting Climate Concerns in River Management -
In early October, acting on behalf of the Nature Conservation Council of New South Wales (NSW), the Environmental Defenders Office in Australia filed a case before the NSW Land and Environment Court to challenge the validity of the Border Rivers Water Sharing Plan, arguing that the NSW Government failed to properly consider future climate change when making the plan. This case asserts that two State Ministers failed to account for future climate impacts and failed to factor in the impact of the most recent drought in Australia on one of the state’s key sources of freshwater, the Murray-Darling Basin. With Australia being one of the driest inhabited continents on Earth, this case is about making sure that rivers stay healthy in a changing climate. Rivers in Australia are already being impacted by overextraction and climate change will only worsen those impacts and amplify inequities already embedded in water sharing regimes, including for Indigenous Australians and future generations. According to the plaintiffs’ lawyers, “if this case is successful, it will likely mean that future Water Sharing Plans will have to take climate change into account, in particular in relation to the setting of catchment-wide extraction limits and environmental flow rules. This could mean more water for fragile ecosystems across the Murray-Darling Basin and in turn healthier river systems and greater water security for downstream communities. Our children and future generations deserve to enjoy and benefit from a healthy, functioning river system.”
Learn more: https://www.edo.org.au/2021/10/06/legal-first-climate-case-filed-against-nsw-water-sharing-plan/
- ‘Historical Ruling’ in Mexico Against EDF’s Windfarm Project that Affects Local Communities -
On 6 September, the First Collegiate Court of Administrative and Civil Matters of the Thirteenth Circuit, based in Oaxaca, Mexico, granted a " suspension" of the Gunaa Sicarú wind project. The project was proposed by Energies Nouvelles Group, Energy of France (EDF) and will directly impact the Agrarian Community of Juchitán de Zaragoza and its five annexed villages: Santa María Xadani, Unión Hidalgo, Chicapa de Castro, Espinal and La Ventosa. This ruling recognises the Indigenous Peoples' interest in defending their ancestral lands, some 70,000 hectares of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec. According to the members of these communities, this is a historic ruling. The dispute began in 2020, when the Assembly of Peoples of the Isthmus in Defence of Land and Territory filed an injunction against the aforementioned French company, due to the fact that the community members had not given their authorisation for the construction of the wind farm in the territory of La Ventosa, which according to local media, involves the municipalities of Juchitán de Zaragoza and Unión Hidalgo, where they seek to install 115 wind turbines of 2,625 megawatts (MW) each, to produce more than 301,000 MW. The Court ruled that the responsible authorities shall refrain from carrying out acts that have the purpose of totally or partially depriving indigenous communities, temporarily or permanently, of the property, possession or enjoyment of the lands of common use for the purpose of the works related to the construction of a wind farm. EDF Renewables has denied that the ruling will affect development of the project because it is planned exclusively on private lands.
Read more: https://www.afr.com/companies/financial-services/cba-sued-in-climate-lawfare-first-20210901-p58ntj
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Kind Regards,
Anne, Juan, and Felix
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