ABSTRACT

Climate change has been described as the greatest threat to human rights in the 21st century. 1 While scientists, policy makers, politicians and lawyers have all debated, discussed and analyzed climate change from various perspectives, litigation relating to climate change is rare, especially at the international level. 2 There are several reasons for this. First, international environmental litigation per se is quite rare. States prefer to settle their disputes through diplomatic channels or by other methods than to resort to litigation. Second, in relation to many environmental issues, it is hard to establish causation. 3 Third, the main objective of environmental law is to prevent damage, because it is virtually impossible to repair environmental damage once it has already taken place. Finally, the remedies available under international law are often ill-suited and inadequate for environmental damage, especially climate change. The first environmental case before the International Court of Justice was decided only in the 1990s, 4 although a few prior cases had implicated environmental issues. 5 Since then, a few environmental cases have come before the ICJ 6 – an environmental case that implicated human rights issues was withdrawn by the parties although their memorials offer insights into the link between human rights and the environment. 7