“Next stop for Paris climate deal: the courts”, 11 Jan 2016

“Countries backsliding on their pledges made at the Paris climate summit could soon get dragged into court by their own citizens.  The sweeping agreement reached last month does not place any legally binding requirements on nations to meet their emissions reduction targets.  But environmentalists see litigation as their enforcement mechanism of choice if governments fall short of the agreement’s goals…Other than public shaming, it’s the only way to hold nations accountable…Urgenda paved the way for the legal strategy when…it became the first in the world to win a civil suit arguing that a government’s…climate policy falls short of protecting its citizens…More [cases] could come as countries begin to devise and implement policies aimed at meeting the goals set out in the Paris framework.  The legal threat mounts once the deal takes effect in 2020...The issue of how climate change policies fit under a government’s duty to protect its people is a new one for courts...[S]ome countries have legal systems that make such lawsuits less likely…[I]f calling out laggards fails to incite action against climate change, the international reporting requirements could help to fuel lawsuits by providing data to back up claims…