18 - Private Climate Litigation

Summary

For aboot 30 years, international climate change law and policy has relied on States to collectively address anthropogenic climate change at the intergovernmental level under the UNFCCC framework. Operating beyond the reach of international law, corporations and other non-state actors have largely remained unaffected by the UNFCCC regime. Meanwhile, global greenhouse gas emissions continue to reach record levels each year and are projected to increase further. Frustrated with the lack of progress, interested groupshave turned to the judiciary. Climate change litigation is primarily occurring in the public sphere but, increasingly, lawsuits are also being directed against large heavy-emitting corporate actors and, in some cases, the directors and officers of these companies. This chapter gives a brief overview of the growing phenomenon of Private Climate Litigation (PCL), by first introducing the underlying rationale of PCL, then offering a definition for it, identifying certain main characteristics of PCL and finally offering brief observations concerning whether PCL can be viewed as a tool to implement climate policies.