Climate Litigation Update

The views of individuals and communities impacted by climate change do not always align with the views of governments, corporations and other enterprises regarding the extent of those enterprises’ obligation to contribute to efforts to mitigate and adapt to climate change. In such circumstances, an increasingly common – and increasingly effective – option for the impacted individuals and communities is to commence climate litigation against the recalcitrant enterprises. In this paper the author outlines the various strategies being adopted in climate litigation and evaluates their effectiveness in a series of recent judicial decisions, both local and international, relating to climate change generally and its impact upon coastal cities in particular.