This year it is celebrated 10th anniversary of the Paris Agreement. It has also been a decade since another pivotal moment in climate justice, when the state was ordered cut carbon emissions for the first time to protect its citizens from climate change. Urgenda case, which upheld by the Dutch Supreme Court in 2019was one of the first rumblings of a wave of climate litigation around the world that activists say led to the creation of a new legal architecture for climate protection.
The past 12 months have seen many more important decisions and tangible climate changes driven by lawsuits.
Rosebank and Jackdaw endorsement ruled illegal
The year started with a bang when the UK government's approval to develop the Rosebank and Jackdaw oil and gas fields in the North Sea was ruled illegal. Scottish Court of Sessionbecause greenhouse gas emissions caused by burning extracted fossil fuels were not taken into account.
The decision was largely based on Supreme Court decision 2024 in climate case brought by campaigner Sarah Finch. The decision also led the high court to reject building permit for a new coal mine in Whitehaven, Cumbria, after which the company abandoned its plans.
Government published new guidelines in June on how these assessments should be carried out, although the ruling does not automatically prevent regulators from approving fossil fuel projects after full impact analysis.
Equinor published revised environmental assessment Rosebank in October and an approval decision is imminent. The government has hinted that it may agree again, and Greenpeace has vowed to take further legal action if it does so.
Plans to build Brazil's largest coal-fired power plant canceled
Civil society organizations have been campaigning for years against the construction of a coal mine and power plant in the southern state of Rio Grande do Sul planned by coal company Copelmi. If this happened, it would be the largest coal power plant in Brazil.
The groups argued that the Nova Seyval plant and the Guaiba mine violated Brazil's climate commitments and that the licensing process was not carried out properly. In 2022 the court suspended licenses and set out requirements for how the process should be reviewed. But in February of this year Kopelmi officially abandoned his plansdeclaring that the project had become unfeasible.
German court opens door to climate damage claims
At first glance, what the German court dismissed climate case lawsuit by a Peruvian farmer and mountain guide against the German energy company RWE.
Saul Luciano Leuya was looking for 0.47% of the total cost of building a flood defense to protect his home from glacier melt, equivalent to RWE's contribution to global emissions.
But Case ten years ago was always a stretch, and in fact it set a potentially important precedent regarding the responsibility of polluters for carbon emissions.
It was therefore not surprising that later that year a group of Pakistani farmers, whose livelihoods had been destroyed by floods three years earlier, fired the opening shot in new lawsuit against Germany's two largest polluting companies.
EnergyAustralia settles greenwashing claim with parents
In May EnergyAustralia settled greenwashing lawsuit brought by a group of Australian parents.
Climate action group Parents for Climate said EnergyAustralia breached Australian consumer law in its promotion of electricity and gas because the carbon offsets used to secure certification were not backed by significant emissions reductions.
As part of the settlement, the utility acknowledged that carbon offsets do not prevent or correct damage caused by greenhouse gas emissions and apologized to the 400,000 customers who participated in the scheme.
It was first case in the country be indicted by the company for marketing itself as carbon neutral.
International courts issue historic climate decisions
In July, two international courts issued landmark advisory opinions on climate change.
At first there was Inter-American Court of Human Rightswhich established that there is a human right to a healthy climate, and states have an obligation to protect it. This was watched closely international courtwhich states that countries must prevent damage to the climate system and that failure to do so could result in them having to pay compensation and other forms of restitution.
Both documents are already under consideration. mentioned in climate change lawsuits around the world. AND Attempts have been made to use them as leverage during climate talks in Brazil last month, although it proved more difficult than expected.
New South Wales coal mine expansion canceled
Approval for NSW's largest coal mine expansion has been canceled in July because the state's independent planning commission did not account for the project's full greenhouse gas emissions.
Denman Aberdeen Muswellbrook's environmental group, working with the Environment Agency, brought the case in 2023, alleging MACH Energy Mount Pleasant Optimization A coal mining project near Muswellbrook will worsen climate change and threaten a unique species of legless lizard.
The appeal court said the commission failed to account for “Scope 3” emissions when coal is exported and burned overseas.
Apple backs away from carbon neutrality claims
In August, a Frankfurt court ruled that Apple had no right to call its Apple Watch “carbon neutral.”
He agreed with German NGO Deutsche Umwelthilfe that the company could not demonstrate long-term carbon neutrality because the claim was based on financing eucalyptus groves in Paraguay whose leases were soon to expire.
Apple is trying to get similar case of greenwashing against this in the USA they fired.
A few months later Tech news sites noticed that Apple has stopped selling its recently released watches as carbon neutral in other countries.
Hawaii to cut transportation emissions after the lawsuit
Last year Hawaii agreed to settle the claim 13 young people represented by the Our Children Foundation said it was violating their rights regarding infrastructure that contributes to climate change.
The settlement agreement is recognized the constitutional rights of Hawaii's youth to a life-sustaining climate, and the state pledged to develop a roadmap to achieve net-zero emissions in its land, sea and inland air transportation systems by 2045.
Delivered in October. energy security and waste reduction plan includes new electric vehicle chargers, investments in public and active transportation, and carbon sequestration efforts through reforestation. It will be updated annually.
Campaigners named the plan “critical milestone”
Activists put an end to coal-fired power plant in Kenya
In October, environmental activists won a key climate change case challenging the approval of a coal-fired power plant in Lamu, on Kenya's southern coast.
The trial against Amu Power (a joint venture between Centum and Gulf Energy) and the Kenya National Environment Authority began ten years ago. construction was ordered to stop in 2019.
The Environment and Land Court ultimately upheld the revocation of the plant's license due to deficiencies in environmental assessments, particularly a lack of adequate public participation. The consequences of climate change have also not been properly assessed.
TotalEnergies ordered to stop greenwashing in France
Later this month TotalEnergies he was found to have made false claims about his climate goals in a French court for making false claims about its climate goals.
Les Amis de la Terre France, Greenpeace France and Notre Affaire à Tous, backed by ClientEarth, said TotalEnergies' “renewal” marketing campaign violated European consumer law by suggesting the company could achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2050 while continuing to produce fossil fuels.
A Paris court ruled that some statements on the company's French website were likely to mislead consumers because there was not enough information about what they meant.
Meat companies settle greenwashing claims
Early November New York agreed to compensation of $1.1 million with the U.S. unit of Brazilian meat company JBS to end a lawsuit alleging the company misled customers about its efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
The money will be used to support climate-smart agriculture programs that will help New York farmers implement best practices to reduce emissions, improve sustainability and increase productivity. JBS USA also agreed to reform its environmental marketing practices and report annually to the New York Attorney General for three years.
Soon after, Tyson Foods also agreed to stop talking it will achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 and will market its beef as organic to settle a greenwashing lawsuit brought by the Environmental Working Group, an agricultural industry watchdog.
UK government releases tougher climate plan
The UK Government has published a revised version carbon budget and growth plan in October after his previous plan was ruled illegal by the high court.
new document confirms The UK's commitment to decarbonise its electricity supply by 2030 and sharply reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 2037, with specific measures across energy, transport, agriculture, housing and industry.
This follows a successful lawsuit by the Good Law Project, Friends of the Earth and ClientEarth. After deleting the original When the net Zero strategy was presented in court in 2022, the trio argued that the “outdated” revised version was still not good enough.
However, campaigners planning another round of lawsuits challenging the national climate strategy, this time in the European Court of Human Rights.
Three Norwegian oil fields declared illegal
Licenses for three North Sea oil fields were ruled illegal in November by a Norwegian court because they were approved without taking into account the full impact of climate change.
Borgarting Court of Appeal supported the claim Greenpeace Nordic and Natur og Ungdom are challenging permission to exploit Equinor's Breidablik fields and Aker BP's Yggdrasil and Tyrving fields.
The decision follows a ruling by the European Court of Human Rights. denial of the claim of the same plaintiffs against Norwaywhich does, however, set important standards for how states should conduct environmental impact assessments of fossil fuel projects.
However, the Borgarting court did not order the fields to stop oil production, giving the Norwegian government six months to sort out the licenses.
