Planetary Justice: Climate liability and nature’s legal rights
earthrise explores how the law is protecting life on Earth by granting rights to nature and holding multinationals to account.
earthrise explores how individuals and communities are using the law to mitigate the effects of the climate and nature crises.
In Huaraz, in the Peruvian Andes, we meet farmer and mountain guide Saul Luciano Lliuya whose home is at risk of flooding due to glacial melt.
Together with the environmental justice NGO, Germanwatch, Saul is taking one of the Global North’s largest polluters to court, claiming it holds some responsibility for the threat to his home. If successful, a precedent would be set which could open the way for similar cases.
One legal precedent already having a global impact is the move to grant nature legal rights. Initiated by Ecuador in its 2008 constitution, nature’s legal personhood has been recognised in Europe for the first time.
We learn how residents campaigned for the Mar Menor in Spain to be granted rights in order to protect it from being destroyed by human activity.