Courts, Climate Change, and the Global Pact for the Environment

Abstract

This Chapter provides background material for conversations held at the 2020 Global Constitutionalism Seminar (a Part of the Gruber Program on Global Justice and Women’s Rights) at Yale Law School. Awareness of the precarious state of our world has become all the more acute. The materials begin with debates about what role courts play, a question that intersects with what remedies they could or should provide in response to climate change. The Chapter then turns to issues of knowledge about and accountability for current and future environmental harms. The issues are how courts determine what information governments and corporations must make public as well as who has the right to access that information and require disclosure. Recognizing that global problems often inspire calls for global solutions, the Chapter ends with an examination of efforts to constitute a Global Pact for the Environment. The 2015 Paris Climate Change Agreement established an array of policy goals and nationally determined contributions (NDCs) on the part of the 180 signatory nations. In 2020, environmental experts and national governments are hoping to build upon this foundation to shape broader commitments to a sustainable future with a Global Pact for the Environment.

Keywords: global, constitutionalism, constitutional law, jurisprudence, environment, climate change