Residents’ litigation results in higher local weather change insurance policies, in accordance with an Irish research
Bringing national governments to justice on climate change, as happened last year in the Irish Supreme Court when an environmental agency won a lawsuit, can help create real and meaningful change.
This emerges from a new paper by the Dublin-based think tank for international affairs, the Institute of International and European Affairs (IIEA), which examined the growing litigation among citizens and groups across Europe over perceived deficits in climate action crisis.
The IIEA said the historic signing of Ireland’s climate law, which requires Ireland to cut emissions by 51% by 2030, was heavily influenced by the actions of the Friends of the Irish Environment (FIE) group.
Last July, the Supreme Court unanimously overturned the government’s 2017 plan under the Climate Action Act of 2015 after the FIE opened a case that it found to be inadequate.
The IIEA research paper, written by former Labor Communications Secretary Alex White and senior researcher on climate and energy policy at the IIEA, Luke O’Callaghan-White, said the verdict was variously hailed as a “turning point”, a “landmark” . Judgment ”and a“ watershed moment ”.
“Without question, this was a significant moment in the evolution of Irish public policy on climate change: a government-approved critical plan was deemed inadequate and therefore illegal,” the newspaper said.
Climate lawsuits against national governments are increasing worldwide, and particularly in Europe, according to the analysis.
“The resulting judgments are often based on the robust consensus that exists in the scientific community on the need to limit global temperature increases. In many high-ranking cases, top courts have ruled in favor of litigants and instructed states to step up climate protection measures. “
The majority of these cases – 58% – outside of the US have produced results that lead to more effective climate regulation, the analysis found.
Mr. O’Callaghan-White said: “There is a perception that climate cases are usually unsuccessful. This is not true.
“What we have found and argued in this paper is that climate disputes will continue to be an effective way of accelerating climate protection, as it enables citizens to review and monitor government actions through judicial intervention.”
Mr White said the analysis looked at three leading cases from the Netherlands, Ireland and Germany.
“It represents a real opportunity for citizens and activist groups to lead the public scrutiny of governments and the extent to which they actually carry out their own policies,” he said.
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