CYIL vol. 15 (2024)

MONIKA FEIGERLOVÁ CYIL 15 ȍ2024Ȏ Kim Bouwer, Uzuazo Etemire, Tracy-Lynn Field, and Ademola Oluborode Jegede (eds.) Climate Litigation and Justice in Africa * Bristol University Press, 2024, ISBN 978-1-5292-2895-3, 358 pp. [Klimatické spory a spravedlnost v Africe] Over the past decade, climate litigation has become a critical component of climate governance and a driver of climate action. 1 Although 87% of cases are brought in courts in the Global North, 2 Africa’s context is important. Climate change is a global problem, as should be the global effort to combat global warming. Africa is a continent where countries have historically contributed little to greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, and where environmental challenges are closely intertwined with social and human rights issues. At the same time, the continent is warming faster than the global average, and Africa bears a disproportionate burden of climate change. 3 The moral imperative to reduce GHG emissions can thus be felt differently in African countries than in the historically high-emitting states of the Global North, where so called strategic systemic climate lawsuits against governments, such as the Urgenda case, challenge states’ low climate ambitions. 4 According to global climate litigation databases, about five African states have been involved in some form of climate litigation, 5 totalling about 18 cases, 6 which may seem insignificant compared to the global figure of 2,851. This brings us to the recent collective volume, Climate Litigation and Justice in Africa , which provides reflective contributions on climate litigation within the African context (p. 1), exploring two overarching themes: the importance of aligning with African priorities and values, and the tension between local and global climate strategies (p. 6). The book is a welcome contribution to the growing literature on climate litigation and fills a significant gap in legal scholarship presenting a comprehensive examination of “an African identity” (p. 2) of climate litigation. 7 As the editors point out in the introductory * Preparation of the review has been supported/subsidized within the Lumina quaeruntur award of the Czech Academy of Sciences for the project ‘Climate law’ conducted at the Institute of State and Law. 1 Climate litigation can affect ‘the outcome and ambition of climate governance’. See IPCC, Climate Change 2022: Mitigation of Climate Change. Contribution of Working Group III to the Sixth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. 2022 Available at: < https://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar6/wg3/ downloads/report/IPCC_AR6_WGIII_FullReport.pdf>, p. 125, accessed 10 November 2024. 2 SETZER, J. and HIGHAM, C. Global Trends in Climate Change Litigation : 2024 Snapshot. London: Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment, London School of Economics and Political Science, 2024. 3 World Meteorological Organization, Press Release ‘Africa faces disproportionate burden from climate change and adaptation costs’ 2 September 2024. Available at: , accessed 10 November 2024. 4 Urgenda Foundation v State of the Netherlands ECLI:NL:HR:2019:2007, decided by the Hoge Raad of the Netherlands in 2019. 5 Kenya, South Africa, Uganda, Namibia, and Nigeria. 6 See Climate Change Litigation Databases maintained by the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law of the Columbia Law School. Available at: , accessed 10 November 2024. 7 Previous research on Africa predominantly references the prior work of the editors of the recent volume. While there is some broader literature addressing the Global South litigation, studies specifically related to climate

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