In the second session of the J20 held on Monday afternoon (13), representatives of the Supreme Courts of the G20 countries discussed “Climate litigation and sustainable development”. The president of the Brazilian Supreme Court, Justice Luís Roberto Barroso, opened the session and recalled that what is happening at the moment in Rio Grande do Sul, state of Brazil, is a kind of wake-up call on the issue under discussion. The Brazilian state was hit by floods that left hundreds dead and thousands homeless.
The participants of J20 agreed that climate issues are global and that the changes that have taken place in recent years threaten humanity as a species. In view of this, the role of the Supreme Courts and how they should act to protect the environment and guarantee the fundamental rights of future generations was questioned.
Most of the representatives said that climate-related problems are increasingly coming before the courts. In Canada, for example, more than 600 cases were prosecuted between 2021 and 2022. The participants shared their experiences of how the courts deal with the issues and also spoke of the need for adaptations and advances in legislation and the responsibility of states with regard to global commitments, such as those made in the Paris Agreement on limits to greenhouse gas emissions.
The J20 ends this Tuesday (14). The session on “Digital transformation and the use of technology for the efficiency of justice”, scheduled for 10am at the Rio de Janeiro Court of Justice, will be open to the general public.
