Local:
Challenge Paris Agreement violations
Hold specific polluting and destructive corporations, or groups of them, to account for their climate inaction by suing them for failing to comply with the Paris Agreement commitments.
What does this look like?
Sue countries, polluting and destructive corporations, or related actors for violating the right to a safe and clean environment, including by driving deforestation or failing to have adequate, ambitious, and just climate action plans that are fully aligned with the commitments of the Paris Agreement to keep global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius.
This argument led to the successful challenge in the U.K., where a new runway at Heathrow International Airport was ruled illegal since it was not in line with the U.K.’s Paris Agreement commitments.
Similarly, incompatibility between Royal Dutch Shell’s climate action plans and the Paris Agreement commitments has led civil society organizations and over 17,000 citizens in the Netherlands to sue Royal Dutch Shell for failing to align its business practices with the action necessary.
Implementing the measures of the liability roadmap
Decision-makers and movements at all levels should keep the following in mind when implementing the measures laid out in this roadmap:
Enacting these policies and measures is simply the first step to holding polluting and destructive industries liable: There will be much work for government officials, decision-makers, activists and civil society alike to do to ensure these measures are fully implemented and move us toward the transformative change the world needs.
Liability should be applied to all industries and corporations that make business decisions that contribute to climate change and its impacts, or that cause harm to people and nature. In addition to the fossil fuel industry, these industries include but are not limited to agribusiness, forestry, mining, and the energy sector.
Many of these measures could equally apply to State-owned corporations. Because the national contexts and unique needs vary from country to country, it is worth considering where to apply and how to adapt the principles and measures listed in the liability roadmap to address State-owned polluting corporations. Factors to consider when doing so could include but are not limited to the degree of democratic control over the entity, role and use of funding from oil/gas revenues, and responsiveness of the entity to transition to regenerative, renewable energy sources.
Measures implemented at the national level should support and reinforce, rather than contradict, measures implemented at the sub-national and local, and vice versa.