A clear and bold heading

Official Climate Week NYC events calendar

Climate Justice Wins: What Recent Legal Victories Mean for What Comes Next

Gabriela Nalvio Melillo
Jahred Tolbert
Haley Czarnek
Natalia Urzola
Event by: American Bar Association Section of Environment, Energy, and Resources (SEER), Climate Change Committee
Event format
Hybrid
Event duration
1 hour 30 minutes
Language
English
In climate law, the losses tend to dominate the conversation. But the past two years have delivered a remarkable string of climate justice victories across international, regional, and domestic law that deserve equal attention and that create foundations advocates can continue building on. The International Court of Justice, the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea, and the Inter-American Court of Human Rights have each issued landmark advisory opinions clarifying that states have binding legal obligations to address climate change and protect the rights of those most affected. New instruments like the Australia-Tuvalu Falepili Union treaty have created the first dedicated migration pathways for climate-affected populations, while human rights bodies and courts have begun recognizing claims grounded in climate displacement. Domestic courts have followed suit: the European Court of Human Rights' decision in KlimaSeniorinnen v. Switzerland, the Montana Supreme Court's affirmance of Held v. Montana, the youth settlement in Navahine v. Hawaiʻi Department of Transportation, and climate superfund legislation in Vermont and New York all signal that accountability frameworks once considered aspirational are becoming enforceable law. This panel takes stock of these wins and asks what they mean going forward. How do advisory opinions translate into domestic litigation and policy? What do these decisions offer communities facing displacement, and where do protection gaps remain? How can practitioners, from litigators to legislative drafters, convert this momentum into durable legal change? Panelists working across international human rights law, climate litigation, climate mobility, and legal accountability will share lessons from these victories and strategies for the implementation fights ahead.