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Impact
Climate
The damage that humans are doing to the global climate may be one of the gravest injustices of all time. Many communities that will suffer the most severe impacts of the climate crisis have contributed the least to the damage. Citizens and organizations are turning to the courts to protect the rights of those impacted by the changing climate and implement adaptation measures; require governments to take bolder action to stop harmful emissions; evaluate climate impacts before approving projects; hold governments to their national and international climate commitments; and more.
Protecting Communities & Climate
ELAW partners around the world are stepping up to keep fossil fuels in the ground and protect the climate through diverse and creative strategies and actions led by communities that contribute to adaptation and mitigation.
Historic International Court Decisions on Climate
These landmark opinions provide authoritative interpretations of existing international law, underscoring the legal duties of States in addressing the climate crisis and its devastating environmental and human rights impacts, and offering guidance for future legal action and accountability.
ELAW Shares Climate Litigation Strategies
The damage that humans are doing to the global climate may be one of the gravest injustices of all time. Some people are profiting enormously from damaging the climate, while others are bearing the costs.
Defending Defenders
Our lawyer colleagues and their community partners are under increasing attack for defending human rights and the environment. We help improve our partners’ security and respond when they are threatened so they can continue their critical work ensuring communities have a voice at the table and the tools they need to defend their rights and protect ecosystems.
Victory for Chilean Defenders and La Campana-Peñuelas Biosphere Reserve
Chile’s Court of Appeals in Valparaíso has unanimously upheld the acquittal of five environmental and human rights defenders who were unjustly criminalized for peacefully opposing a high-voltage transmission project in La Campana-Peñuelas, a UN Biosphere Reserve.
Our lawyer colleagues and their community partners are under increasing attack for defending and advancing the human right to a healthy environment. Public interest lawyers are fighting back against these attempts to stifle local efforts to protect the climate.
ELAW Helps Launch Coalition to Defend Land, Indigenous, and Environmental Defenders
In response to the increasing frequency and severity of attacks on our partners, ELAW is building skills in our network and fighting back, case by case and country by country.
Biodiversity
Over 1 million species are facing the threat of extinction due to human activities. We collaborate with lawyers working on community-led efforts to challenge unsustainable development projects that threaten wildlife and ecosystems, and strengthen and enforce laws to provide better protection.
We are committed to tackling the root causes of biodiversity loss by improving legal frameworks that protect ecosystems and ensuring environmental and human rights laws are enforced so that we safeguard our natural heritage for generations to come.
The Spring 2025 Advocate features work with grassroots leaders around the world to speak out for the human right to clean water and defend freshwater ecosystems in Panama, Guatemala, Pakistan, and Kenya.
Whole Ecosystems Protect Life on Earth
The Autumn 2024 Advocate highlights ELAW’s work with partners in Argentina, the Democratic Republic of Congo, the Dominican Republic, Peru, Slovakia, Uganda, and Ukraine to protect and restore ecosystems.
Fossil Fuels
Around the world, grassroots advocates are stepping forward to challenge short-sighted plans for coal, oil, and gas development. They challenge permits for coal mines, power plants, and infrastructure; fight pipelines and oil exploration both onshore and offshore; and enforce clean air and water laws to help communities chart a sustainable energy future.
Protecting Communities & the Environment in Africa
The Summer 2025 Advocate features our collaboration with partners in Namibia to help citizens speak out against short-sighted oil and gas development, and work to advance the human right to a healthy climate.
Guide to Evaluating EIAs for Oil and Gas Projects
ELAW’s Law and Science Teams distilled decades of experience critiquing project plans with partners around the world in this guidebook. It aims to help level the playing field for citizens challenging powerful oil and gas companies’ short-sighted projects.
UK Oil Field Approvals Reversed in Major Climate Victory
Scotland’s Court of Session has ruled the previous approval of the massive Rosebank and Jackdaw oil fields unlawful. “There is almost no public interest in developing the Rosebank oil field,” says Tessa Khan, Executive Director of Uplift.
Marine & Coastal
The ocean provides food, medicine, energy, jobs, and recreation, and is one of the main repositories of the world’s biodiversity. We need a healthy ocean to stabilize the climate and avoid catastrophic climate damage, but the ocean is threatened by coastal development, pollution, overfishing, unsustainable aquaculture, mining, oil drilling, and more. Learn more about our work with partners around the world to protect marine ecosystems for future generations!
Resounding Victory for Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka’s Supreme Court issued a landmark ruling, ordering a Singaporean shipping company and related parties to pay US$1 billion initial compensation for environmental damage caused by a devastating plastic nurdle spill that damaged marine life.
Proposed Port in Wetland Withdrawn
Plans for an enormous port expansion in Cuyutlán Lagoon on the Pacific Ocean threaten Mexico’s fourth-largest coastal wetland. ELAW collaborated with partners at Tsikini to raise the alarm about potential impacts to alarm about the potential impacts.
Local Voices at World Fisheries Congress
Members of ELAW’s Marine Working Group joined scientists from around the world at the World Fisheries Congress in Seattle to share community perspectives on the real impacts of blue economy projects in the Global South.
Plastic
Adopting laws to reduce plastic pollution is widely recognized as a vital step to rein in the damage plastic pollution is doing to our communities, health, and environment. Over 40% of the plastic produced globally is used only once and then discarded. We are working with local advocates to adopt and strengthen legislation at all stages of the plastic life cycle from production to disposal to address this crisis.
For specific case information, please visit Plastic Law Resources for Advocates.
Accountability for Plastic Nurdle Spill
The Supreme Court upheld the “polluter pays” principle in a case against a shipping company that spilled plastic nurdles into Sri Lanka’s turquoise waters. This landmark ruling, which ordered the polluters to pay $1 billion in damages, is sending ripples through the industry.
New Resource to Tackle Plastic Pollution Globally
The Global Plastic Laws database will be the most comprehensive tool to date to research plastic legislation that has been adopted around the world.
Taking on the Plastic Pollution Crisis
ELAW partners are working to draft and strengthen laws at home that tackle the plastic waste problem and hold polluters accountable. They are participating in UN negotiations to adopt a global treaty to rein in plastic waste, and advancing legislation to curb plastic waste.
Join the movement supporting community-based solutions
Grassroots advocates in more than 80 countries are calling on ELAW for support defending communities and ecosystems. Your gift helps us keep lawyers safe and collaborate closely with them to provide the legal and scientific support they need to win lasting victories.