Climate

Dr Filippos Proedrou and Dr Maria Pournara highlight the shortcomings of the EU's new ecocide law. The EU recently passed a law that criminalises actions “comparable to ecocide”. It’s a revolutionary legal development — the first law of its kind to be adopted by a political e

The climate action plan devised by the UK government is unlawful, the English High Court has ruled. There is not enough evidence of policies in place that would actually reduce greenhouse gas emissions, the court said.

The European Commission has launched action against 20 airlines for allegedly spreading "vague or false" claims about the environmental impact of their flights. The airlines, which have not been named, have been told to bring their practices in line with EU consumer laws within 30 days.

A judge has thrown out the attempted prosecution of a woman for holding a placard on jury rights outside of a climate trial. Mr Justice Saini said there had been no basis for the prosecution of Trudi Warner, 69, for criminal contempt for holding a placard outside the trial of climate activists that

New climate change reporting duties for Northern Ireland public bodies will come into operation in May 2024. Regulations laid in line with the landmark Climate Change Act (Northern Ireland) 2022 will require the first reports to be submitted in October 2025.

The European Court of Human Rights has published a factsheet on past and pending cases concerning climate change. The document has been published following the Strasbourg court's landmark rulings yesterday on three climate cases. The applicants were successful in one of the cases, and unsuccessful i

Switzerland is failing to meet its human rights obligations by not taking sufficient action to tackle climate change, the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) has ruled in a landmark case. The Strasbourg court today handed down judgments in three landmark cases, which represented the first climate

Eoin Jackson looks ahead to upcoming rulings on climate litigation before the European Court of Human Rights. The European Court of Human Rights has recently announced that it will deliver its rulings in three major climate cases — Verein KlimaSeniorinnen Schweiz and Others v. Switzerland, Ca

A new training programme aims to inspire, empower and support Northern Ireland lawyers providing services to clients in the emerging areas of environmental law and climate justice.

Company directors should consider their company's nature-related risks as part of their legal duties under the law of England and Wales, a legal opinion commissioned by Pollination Law and the Commonwealth Climate and Law Initiative (CCLI) has found. Authored by a team of five barristers led by Shar

A landmark legal challenge relating to the regulation of diesel car emissions in Northern Ireland returned to the High Court today for the first time since the return of devolved government. Friends of the Earth Northern Ireland, represented by The Public Interest Litigation Support (PILS) Project a

Friends of the Earth Northern Ireland and Queen’s University Belfast have launched a new film charting the ups and downs of the campaign for Northern Ireland’s first climate change law. The film, ACT NOW! The race to get a Climate Act for Northern Ireland, which launched this morning, ex

Belgium has become the first country in Europe to criminalise ecocide on a national and international level. A new penal code backed by Belgium's federal parliament yesterday provides for imprisonment of up to 20 years for individuals guilty of ecocide, and fines of up to €1.6 million for corpo

The UK has said it will withdraw from the Energy Charter Treaty (ECT) in a move welcomed by climate campaigners who say the treaty is an obstacle to climate action. Signed in 1994, the ECT was designed to promote international investment in the energy sector, historically providing protections for i

Amnesty International has called for a fund to remedy the harms faced by communities affected by climate change to be established after higher-income states missed a deadline to nominate their representatives to its board. Following the hottest year ever recorded globally the need for action is "acu