Green European Journal, June 2024
Legal efforts to ensure states adopt environmental and climate adaptation measures are increasing globally. Victims of recurring landslides in Uganda, for instance, have challenged the government’s lack of climate adaptation strategies, while the Supreme Court of Pakistan has upheld a decision barring the construction of cement plants in environmentally vulnerable areas. It’s part of what Fizza Zaidi, Research Associate for the Climate Change Programme at the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) in New Delhi, calls a growing “push for adaptation within climate litigation”.
In another case in Pakistan, in which a farmer sued the government for failing to abide by its own climate change policies, the Court highlighted the country’s vulnerability to extreme weather events in particular. “Recognising the limited capacity of developing countries to adapt, the court saw climate justice as a means through which courts can help build adaptive capacity and climate resilience,” explains Zaidi.
