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This year, two of the most important climate litigation cases in which ESCR-Net has intervened had rulings from the European Court of Human Rights. On April 9, 2024, the Court handed down long-awaited judgments in two cases examining States’ climate change obligations under the European Convention on Human Rights: the cases of KlimaSeniorinnen and Duarte Agostinho.

The 60th climate negotiation sessions – or ‘SB60’- just concluded in Bonn, Germany. Among other issues, SB60 addressed the operationalization of the Loss and Damage Fund (LDF) and the post-2025 climate finance goals, also known as the New Collective Quantified Goal (NCQG). The negotiations aim to lead to agreement on both issues at this year’s Conference of Parties (COP29) in Azerbaijan. ESCR-Net members closely followed SB60, actively (link is external)engaged(link is external) in various cross-constituency actions guided by collective analysis established post COP28 in Dubai.

The ruling of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights in the case “Community of La Oroya vs. Peru” sets an important precedent for the protection of the right to a healthy environment across the Americas and for adequate state oversight of corporate activities. The first-of-its-kind decision holds Peru accountable for its failure to protect the inhabitants of the Andean city of La Oroya who were exposed to toxic pollution from a smelter complex that operated without adequate pollution controls for a century.