Governments around the world are facing a growing number of framework litigation cases that challenge their policies for tackling climate change.
Challenging government responses to climate change through framework litigation, a study by the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment at the London School of Economics and Political Science, reveals that 80 framework litigation cases have been filed against national governments and sub-national governments since 2005.
Government framework cases differ from other climate legal actions in that they focus on the ambition or implementation of an administration’s whole climate change response. As such, they impact on “how fast low-carbon transition occurs in different jurisdictions, increasing the pace and scale of climate action”, the study says.
Most of these cases – 63 – have been filed in or against countries in the Global North, while a small but significant minority have been filed in or against Global South countries, with eight cases in Latin America and seven in South Asia. Cases have been filed before national courts in 24 countries. Numbers have been rising steadily since 2017, with a record 30 new cases submitted in 2021 – just under half of them in Germany.
The study says that such litigation can “significantly impact on government decision-making, requiring governments to develop and implement more ambitious policy responses to climate change”. However, it warns that potential climate litigants, including civil society organisations and funders, “should think carefully about when and how to bring framework cases, particularly in light of the challenges of enforcing rulings”. Framework cases must be accompanied by ongoing and extensive strategies for engagement if they are to play a role in achieving policy outcomes, it adds.
The study says framework litigation will matter to corporates and investors “as they can prompt concrete governmental policy responses” and may “act as a spur to accelerate the transition in their respective countries, with all the knock-on impacts that may have”.
Such legal action may “also plant the seeds for cases against corporate actors”, it warns.