Climate litigation to protect the Brazilian Amazon: Establishing a constitutional right to a stable climate

Joana Setzer,Délton Winter De Carvalho

doi:10.1111/reel.12409

Joana Setzer, Délton Winter De Carvalho

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1111/reel.12409

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Abstract

AbstractIn recent years, climate cases to combat illegal deforestation in the Amazon have begun to be brought before Brazilian courts. We focus on a lawsuit filed by the Institute of Amazonian Studies against the Brazilian state. The lawsuit seeks not only an order to compel the federal government to comply with national climate law but also the recognition of a fundamental right to a stable climate, for present and future generations, under the Brazilian Constitution. We argue that this case both exists in the context of a transnational movement, as it draws from existing rights‐based cases, whilst also trying to develop this movement. This lawsuit seeks to establish that a stable climate system is critical to the protection of other fundamental rights. We consider what it means to seek a constitutional right to a stable climate through courts within the wider context in which national governance systems are constitutionalizing climate change commitments.

Highlights

Any effort to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in Brazil, stop biodiversity loss and protect weather and climate patterns depends on combating illegal deforestation in the Amazon
The total area destroyed in 2019 and 2020 was higher than in any year since 2008, and this rise in deforestation rates accounted for Brazilian emissions increasing by 9.6 percent in 2019.8 The federal government has been absent from its role as surveyor and enforcer of environmental policies,9 having proposed, or supported, several legislative bills that provide amnesty to criminal activities and other illegal activities relating to land use in the country
This article examines a particular lawsuit filed by the Institute of Amazonian Studies (Instituto de Estudos Amazônicos [IEA]) against the Brazilian state in October 2020.19 The lawsuit seeks an order to compel the federal government to comply with national climate law and the recognition of a fundamental right to a stable climate, for present and future generations, under the Brazilian Constitution

Summary

| INTRODUCTION

Any effort to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in Brazil, stop biodiversity loss and protect weather and climate patterns depends on combating illegal deforestation in the Amazon. Brazil is the seventh largest global GHG emitter, responsible for 2.9 percent of global emissions. GHG emissions in Brazil are largely connected to changes in land use and land management practices.. The Brazilian Amazon houses remarkable biodiversity and plays an important role in regulating regional as well as global weather and climate patterns. government's need to plan and promote the colonization and development of the hinterland during the post-war period following the period of military dictatorship between 1964 and 1985. See RCO Prado, ‘Human Rights, Indigenous Peoples and Development in the Expansion of Agricultural Frontier in Brazilian Amazon’ (2011) 2 Direito econômico e socioambiental PUCPR (https://periodicos.pucpr.br/index.php/direitoeconomico/article/view/776).

SETZER AND WINTER DE CARVALHO

Findings

| CONCLUSION