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Laboratório do Observatório do Clima v. Minister of Environment and Brazil - order

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Laboratório do Observatório do Clima v. Minister of Environment and Brazil - petition

Filing Year For Action

On October 26, 2021, Observatório do Clima (OC), a network of 71 civil society organizations, filed a class action at the federal court of Amazonas against the Environmental Ministry and Brazilian government. The plaintiffs request that the National Climate Change Policy be updated according to the best available science, the seriousness of the climate emergency, and the latest IPCC report (AR6) to ensure the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) by the Brazilian government consistent with a 1.5oC global warming scenario. The plaintiffs assert that climate change affects the constitutionally recognized right to a healthy environment, as well as fundamental rights such as the right to life, dignity, health, food, and housing, along with several recognized principles of international environmental law. The plaintiffs refer to the latest IPCC report to attest to the urgency of the case and the likely damages that will occur in the case of inaction from the Brazilian government. 

Plaintiffs argue that, as a signatory to the Paris Agreement, Brazil has committed to a series of duties to mitigate climate change. Along with the existing legal climate framework in Brazil (i.e., the Law on Climate Change Policy and the National Climate Change Plan), this entails a duty from the Brazilian government to (i) take the necessary measures to predict, avoid and minimize the identified causes of climate change originating in the national territory; (ii) reduce anthropogenic GHG emissions in relation to their different sources; (iii) make the instruments of the national policy effective; (iv) present successive phases of the national plan; and (v) strive for the maximum possible ambition in reducing GHGs.

Brazil represents one of the world’s largest GHG emitters. Yet, the majority of emissions arise from deforestation rather than from energy sources and transportation. Through the Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) published in 2016, Brazil committed to reducing GHG emissions by 37% by 2025 and by 43% by 2030 based on emissions from 2005. On December 2020, the government presented its updated NDC. The new NDC used the same percentage of emissions reductions, but altered the baseline quantity for calculating them, effectively making the second NDC less ambitious than the first. Additionally, Brazil had committed to reducing deforestation by 80% by 2030 in 2015 – this provision was deleted from the updated NDC. The plaintiffs assert that the updated NDC effectively violates the Paris Agreement and the national legal framework and the principle of non-regression.

On November 4, 2021, the court scheduled a preliminary conciliatory hearing for November 25, 2021. However, on November 24, 2021, conciliatory hearing was canceled, in view of the Union's manifestation of no interest in the consensual composition of the dispute.

On May 13, 2022, the court rejected the request to combine the case with Six Youths v. Minister of Environment and Others, as requested by the defendants. 

Laboratório do Observatório do Clima v. Minister of Environment and Brazil

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An aim to achieve a quantifiable outcome within a given time-frame, set by an institution such as a national government.

Policy instruments are techniques or tools used by governing authorities to promote certain policies in order to achieve predetermined goals. Put simply, instruments are how a government tries to achieve its goals, with this taxonomy being focused on national policy instruments.

Risk is the potential for adverse consequences resulting from the dynamic interplay between (climate-related) hazards, exposure, and vulnerability of affected human or ecological systems.

Groups  of people who are adversely affected by climate change or the response to it

A set of principles, processes, and practices that build economic and political power to shift from an extractive economy to a regenerative economy.

Renewable energy means all forms of energy produced from renewable sources in a sustainable manner.

Fossil fuel is a generic term for non-renewable energy sources such as coal, fossil gas, and oil (including crude oil, and petroleum products), that can be used for electricity and heat generation. Fossil fuels are hydrocarbons formed from pressurised and heated organic material buried over millions of years.

Molecules in the atmosphere that play a key role in the greenhouse effect by trapping heat radiating from Earth’s surface.

Area of the economy in which actors engage in identical or related activities.

In human systems, the process of adjustment to actual or expected climate change and its effects, in order to moderate harm, increase resilience or exploit beneficial opportunities. In natural systems, the process of adjustment to actual climate change and its effects; human intervention may facilitate adjustment to expected climate change and its effects.

The management and allocation of funds, assets and investments to meet various objectives