Climate change cases predicted to make a legal splash in 2018

In the federal case, scheduled for trial in February, the plaintiffs hope to establish that the government's climate change policies have failed to protect their constitutional right to live in a habitable environment.

By: Reuters | Mexico | Published: December 28, 2017 1:05 pm

While there has been a steady rise in cases seeking to hold corporations and governments to account, few make it to court and legal action is largely limited to richer countries.

A clutch of high-profile legal cases over responsibility for the effects of climate change will be fought out in courtrooms next year as claims stack up against both governments and some of the world’s biggest oil and energy companies. Lawsuits in the United States brought by young activists and several Californian cities are most likely to make waves, but legal action by a Peruvian farmer in Germany and Greenpeace in Norway could also cause ripples, said lawyers and academics.