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Article

16 Sep 2015

Corporate Legal Accountability Quarterly Bulletin highlights climate justice litigation

"Corporate Legal Accountability Quarterly Bulletin - Issue 18, September 2015", 17 Sep 2015

Welcome to our Corporate Legal Accountability Quarterly Bulletin -- highlighting a specific topic each quarter, as well as key developments in corporate legal accountability.  The Corporate Legal Accountability hub on our website provides objective, concise information about lawsuits against companies in which human rights abuses are alleged...

Quarterly Highlight: Climate Justice Litigation...[Many] people facing the human rights impacts of climate change...have turned to the courts for relief...In a few lawsuits, plaintiffs have sought to hold companies directly accountable for harms caused by their climate impacts...While most climate change litigation against governments is by companies or trade associations seeking to weaken or evade existing laws, some climate victims have sued governments to strengthen regulation.  These lawsuits are often a direct response to the “corporate capture” of government by industry that has yielded weak climate change legislation in many countries that are large emitters...Mary Robinson has said that climate change is “very likely, the single greatest human rights challenge of the 21st century.”  Amid uncertainty about whether the forthcoming Paris climate conference will result in stronger climate action, novel legal approaches like these will be crucial, both to strengthen company liability and to spur effective climate regulation by governments. [Refers to Chiquita, Comilog, Costco & CP Foods, Eternit, ExxonMobil, IGR, Mars, Nestlé, RWE, Texaco/Chevron]