Courts or policies: which matters more for climate action in South Asia?

(Eco Business, 10 Oct 2022) Ahead of COP27, lawyers and NGOs have threatened to ramp up global climate litigation in response to government inaction, but IPCC experts stress that institutions and policymaking are also vital.

In 2015, Asghar Leghari, a tax lawyer and farmer, successfully sued the government of Pakistan. The Lahore High Court ruled that the state was failing to implement national climate change policies, impacting its citizens’ constitutional right to life.

In his judgement, then chief justice of the court Mansoor Ali Shah referred to the concept of climate justice, and recognised that constitutional rights like right to life and human dignity encompass the right to a healthy and clean environment.

The judgement resulted in the constitution of a Climate Change Commission for the province of Punjab to ensure the execution of climate change policies, as well as a draft climate change policy for the province.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s (IPCC) latest report on adaptation, released in February 2022, cites Leghari v Federation of Pakistan as a leading case in one of “a rising number of case laws addressing the state’s failure to implement adaptation policies and resultant climate change litigation”.

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Eco Business, 10 Oct 2022: Courts or policies: which matters more for climate action in South Asia?

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