Climate Justice for Future Generations (Order of the First Senate) (BVerfG)

Abstract

Climate change is an urgent global challenge, and human rights-based climate justice litigation is increasingly used in efforts to force executives and legislators to take action to limit the effects of anthropogenic climate change. These effects are already felt around the world—for example, in the form of droughts, rising sea levels, and more frequent extreme weather events. Among the most important pollutants that accelerate climate change is CO2. As a highly industrialised nation, Germany contributes about 2 percent of global CO2 emissions, although it only is home to around 1 percent of the Earth's population. In recent years, German companies have faced litigation over their contributions to human-made climate change. The decision by Germany's Federal Constitutional Court (Bundesverfassungsgericht) that is presented here is to be seen in the context of the current trend of human rights-based climate justice litigation in domestic and international courts. It can be considered the German counterpart to the landmark Urgenda case that was decided by the Dutch Supreme Court in 2019.