In 2020, the Paris Agreement is the pinnacle of international law on climate change. It orchestrates global climate action over the coming decades. Countries agreed to limit global warming to well below 2°C above preindustrial times, closer to 1.5°C. Humankind will only achieve this temperature goal if we domesticate our international climate commitments. Judges have proven to be instrumental in holding their governments accountable for their climate pledges. Report Four of this four-part series explores the nature of the Paris Agreement, its history, and the framework of international instruments and international legal principles that support global and domestic climate action.

Report 2 contains a comprehensive review of the growing number and variety of climate lawsuits in Asia and the Pacific. It underscores the unique flavor and voice of regional jurisprudence and compares it with global approaches. Climate change in Asia and the Pacific is deadly and impacts communities now. The report details why and how regional climate litigation seeks relief in increasingly urgent ways. It is the second in the four-part series that ADB produced in recognition of the inevitability of increased litigation in the era of climate change.

National legal and policy frameworks underpin international climate action because they are the backbone of domestic responses to the climate emergency. Unless they support global objectives, local climate action stalls. Concerned by sluggish national responses to climate change or injured by its impacts, citizens are filing lawsuits, making courts central to national climate governance. To adjudicate these lawsuits, courts require current information about their climate change legal and policy frameworks. This report provides holistic syntheses of the climate legal and policy frameworks of 32 countries in Asia and the Pacific and discusses key legislative trends and climate-relevant constitutional rights.

Climate change in Asia and the Pacific is deadly and impacts communities now. Regional climate litigation seeks relief in increasingly urgent ways and judges need a tool kit to respond. Report Two of this four-part series is a comprehensive review of the growing number and variety of climate lawsuits in Asia and the Pacific. It underscores the unique flavor and voice of regional jurisprudence and compares it with global approaches. No one can solve climate change alone and neither can any particular judiciary. Judges can, however, learn from each other, taking judicial excellence and applying it to the case before them.

Climate change is the defining challenge of our time. Without urgent climate action, humanity faces a world that cannot sustain civilization as we know it. People around the globe are demanding action, some with climate litigation. This four-part report series recognizes the inevitability of increased litigation in the era of climate change and judges need a tool kit to respond. Report One explains how judges from Asia and the Pacific contribute to climate governance, along with the Asian Development Bank’s rationale for producing this report series. It guides readers through some of the basics about climate change: What is causing it? How do we know? How bad might it get? What do we do about it?

Globally, women are disproportionately impacted by climate change and disasters due to gender inequalities and limited opportunities to participate in decision-making processes. To help address this imbalance, this publication provides guidance on how to integrate gender equality in laws and policies on climate change and disaster management in developing member countries of the Asian Development Bank. It provides a conceptual framework and good practice guide based on international norms and examples of national laws. It also demonstrates how gender-responsive laws and policies can contribute to women’s resilience to climate change and disasters. The publication was developed for the use of governments, policy-makers, organizations, and individuals engaged in gender-responsive legislative reforms.

While climate change litigation in developed countries of the 'Global North' is a well-studied phenomenon (from its distinctive characteristics and the contribution it is making, to the implementation of international climate laws like the Paris Agreement), relatively few studies focus on climate case law emerging elsewhere. Litigating Climate Change in the Global South sheds light on emerging and accelerating climate litigation in developing countries across the three regions of Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean, and Asia and the Pacific. It is the first monograph-length work to provide a comprehensive assessment of this jurisprudence. Amid growing scholarly and policy interest in climate change litigation and its impact on international climate governance, the book examines which Global South countries are seeing climate cases, what is driving these trends, the coalitions of actors involved, and the early impacts this litigation is having on global goals of climate mitigation and adaptation.

This Research Handbook provides a comprehensive depiction of the various stages, opportunities and challenges of climate change litigation at national and international levels from an innovative practice-oriented perspective. Bringing together expert authors from a range of legal backgrounds, it features contributions not only from experienced academics researching in the field, but also from strategic planning specialists and legal coordinators for organizations involved in climate-related litigation. This title contains one or more Open Access chapters.

This ground-breaking volume provides analyses from experts around the globe on the part played by national and international law, through legislation and the courts, in advancing efforts to tackle climate change, and what needs to be done in the future. Published under the auspices of the British Institute of International and Comparative Law (BIICL), the volume builds on an event convened at BIICL, which brought together academics, legal practitioners and NGO representatives. The volume offers not only the insights from that event, but also additional materials, sollicited to offer the reader a more complete picture of how climate change litigation is evolving in a global perspective, highlighting both opportunities, and constraints.

Courts have emerged as a crucial battleground in efforts to regulate climate change. Over the past several years, tribunals at every level of government around the world have seen claims regarding greenhouse gas emissions and impacts. These cases rely on diverse legal theories, but all focus on government regulation of climate change or the actions of major corporate emitters. This book explores climate actions in state and national courts, as well as international tribunals, in order to explain their regulatory significance. It demonstrates the role that these cases play in broader debates over climate policy and argues that they serve as an important force in pressuring governments and emitters to address this crucial problem. As law firms and public interest organizations increasingly develop climate practice areas, the book serves as a crucial resource for practitioners, policymakers and academics.