SCELG, IPCC Special Report 1.5 ˚C and Climate Change Litigation
On Saturday 6 October, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) published a Special Report on the impacts of global warming of 1.5˚C above pre-industrial levels and related global greenhouse gas emission pathways. Just a few days later, the Hague Court of Appeal, in the Netherlands, confirmed the Urgenda ruling in which a group of Dutch citizens took the government to Court for lack of strong enough action when it comes to climate change mitigation. Both the IPCC report and the Urgenda decision were high on the agenda of an event attended by SCELG Co-Director Francesco Sindico in Geneva on Wednesday 10 October 2018. The event, organised by the Centre for International Environmental Law, Earthjustice and the Geneva Academy of International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights, was one of the first events to discuss the implications of the IPCC Special Report 1.5 from a human rights perspective. Francesco joined a selected group of experts coming both from academia and practice and was asked to introduce the session on “Human Rights Thresholds in the Context of Climate Change”. Back from the meeting, and in collaboration with SCELG researcher Kathyrn McKenzie, Francesco prepared the following SCELG Policy Brief that captures some of the points made at the meeting in Geneva:
- F. Sindico and K. McKenzie, Human Rights Thresholds in the Context of Climate Change: A Litigation Perspective in the Wake of the IPCC Special Report on 1.5˚C or the Week in which Everything Changed…., SCELG Policy Brief 15/2018
