friends of the earth seeks climate
justice
friends of the earth
international
Friends of the Earth International hosts
the Climate Justice Programme, launched in
2003. Dozens of organizations and lawyers
have collaborated to support law
enforcement around the world to combat
climate change and associated human rights
abuses. This new and dramatic response to
climate change gives people the ability to
use legal rights to seek redress, to
protect their lives and livelihoods, and to
send a clear message that they are not
passive victims but players on the
political stage whose concerns must be
respected.
Legal challenges are underway in the
United States against the Bush
administration's export credit bodies for
not taking climate change into account when
providing financial support for fossil fuel
projects and its Environmental Protection
Agency for rejecting its power under the
Clean Air Act to regulate global warming
emissions with other organizations, US
states and cities, and affected individuals
in these cases.
The first European climate change case
began in the Berlin courts in June 2004,
with a challenge to the
German government's
secrecy
over the fossil fuel projects
supported by its export credit agency.
Meanwhile, a petition to the
Inter-American Commission on Human Rights
against the United States is being
developed by the Inuit of Canada for
violations of their human rights due to
climate change, including their rights to
property, culture and subsistence (
www.climatelaw.org/media/inuit
).
A 2004 Friends of the Earth
International publication about
ExxonMobil's contribution to climate change
(
www.climatelaw.org/media/exxon.contribution
) has shown that we can work out how major
companies around the world have fueled
global warming. This kind of analysis will
help cases aimed at establishing climate
change liability against corporations.
©foe scotland
©balthazar serreau
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Shareholders outside the 2004 Shell
AGM in London are urged by Friends of
the Earth to read all about how the
company is damaging communities and the
environment in the other
Shell
report
|
