On February 2, 2023, the Supreme Court of Pakistan held that Punjab's Mines and Minerals Department must obtain any required Initial Environmental Examination or Environmental Impact Assessment before inviting bids for small-scale mining licenses for sand, gravel, and sandstone. The Court found that requiring the successful bidder to obtain environmental approval only after bidding defeated the purpose of environmental review.

The Court required a climate-proof mining policy under which climate risks to mining areas are integrated into environmental assessment. It directed the Department to develop guidelines and standard operating procedures and recommended enforceable penalties in licenses for violations of environmental management plans. The climate analysis was part of the Court's operative reasoning on the timing and content of environmental review.

Public Interest Law Association of Pakistan v. Province of Punjab

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Public Interest Law Association of Pakistan v. Province of Punjab - decision

Filed

Pakistan

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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.

Justice is the ethical and political framework that addresses fairness, including issues of responsibility, rights, and structural inequity.

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

Zoning and spatial planning are both methods for guiding the distribution of people and activities in a space, and are regulatory restriction.

Coal is a combustible sedimentary rock formed from carbonised plant matter, rich in carbon and hydrocarbons, and occurring in several main types including hard coal and brown coal.

Activities of industries that extract natural resources, such as mining, oil, and gas, for commercial use.

This sector creates and distributes information and entertainment through television, radio, print, and digital platforms.

Public Interest Law Association of Pakistan v. Province of Punjab - decision

Policy instrument

Just transition

Fossil fuel

Economic sector