Climate Litigation
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From 2022-2024 I was the Hitz Fellow for Litigation-Relevant Science at the Union of Concerned Scientists Science Hub for Climate Litigation. Through this time I learned the landscape of climate litigation and worked as a scientific advisor for legal briefs submitted in cases around the world.
Most notably I was a scientific advisor and co-author on legal briefs submitted to the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS) and International Court of Justice (ICJ) in the Advisory Opinion cases on State obligations regarding climate change and international law. The Science Hub for Climate Litigation worked closely with the legal team from Foley Hoag representing Mozambique, Sierra Leone and other States in the ITLOS case, as well as Sierra Leone and Namibia in the ICJ case. State submissions for the ITLOS case can be found here. In coalition with the Center for International Environmental Law, Greenpeace International, and my colleagues at the Union of Concerned Scientists I contributed to an amicus brief in the case of Duarte Agostinho et al., v. Portugal et al. This brief can be read here. |
Invited lecture at UMass Amherst on "Advancing Climate Justice Using Science and Litigation for Accountability"
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Press statement from the ITLOS AO release
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Below is a statement by Dr. Shaina Sadai at UCS.
“The ITLOS Advisory Opinion is a crucial step forward in the pursuit of climate justice. The impacts of climate change are all around us as marine heatwaves are experienced across the world and sea levels continue to rise. In this context, island nations have led the way looking for solutions and today their initiative has secured an Advisory Opinion on climate change and international law focusing on the marine environment. The ITLOS Advisory Opinion provides critical clarity around nations’ legal responsibility that could ultimately help communities secure justice for the detrimental impacts of climate change they’ve already endured and to protect future generations. |
“With the official input from an international court, there is significant new legal rationale for thousands of climate litigation cases currently filed in local, state, national and international courts. The ITLOS decision also sets a powerful tone ahead of forthcoming AOs from the International Court of Justice and InterAmerican Court of Human Rights.
“While this progress is hopeful, real climate justice cannot be achieved unless wealthy, high-emitting countries work to meet all specified requirements. It’s deeply unfortunate that the United States isn’t a party to the U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea but remains crucial that as the world’s largest historical emitter of carbon emissions they do their part in preventing, reducing, and controlling heat-trapping emissions by phasing out fossil fuels and reining in other sources of human-caused heat-trapping emissions. With this new legal reinforcement, the international community is one step closer to ensuring that necessary collective action is taken to address this worsening and grossly inequitable global crisis.”
“While this progress is hopeful, real climate justice cannot be achieved unless wealthy, high-emitting countries work to meet all specified requirements. It’s deeply unfortunate that the United States isn’t a party to the U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea but remains crucial that as the world’s largest historical emitter of carbon emissions they do their part in preventing, reducing, and controlling heat-trapping emissions by phasing out fossil fuels and reining in other sources of human-caused heat-trapping emissions. With this new legal reinforcement, the international community is one step closer to ensuring that necessary collective action is taken to address this worsening and grossly inequitable global crisis.”
Conference session organizing
Coming up March 2025: I'll be co-convening a panel on Legal and Political Geographies of International Law at AAG 2025.
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