CJI Surya Kant urges courts to assess cumulative harm in climate disputes

Speaking at the two-day National Green Tribunal International Conference, the CJI said that aspects of the environment cannot be limited to geographical spaces

Chief Justice of India (CJI) Surya Kant on Saturday said that adjudication of climate disputes by courts should examine the cumulative harm caused to the environment rather than limit its scope to the isolated environmental injury caused by a project.

He said that the challenges immediately ahead will be more demanding as countries are transitioning to new forms of energy generation that require new infrastructure, new technologies and new patterns of land and resource use. (ANI)

Speaking at the two-day National Green Tribunal International Conference, the CJI said that aspects of the environment cannot be limited to geographical spaces as the impact on the environment in one place has a cumulative impact on climate.

Stating the challenges that lie ahead for courts in the field of climate disputes, the CJI said, “A river does not experience pollution according to administrative boundaries. A forest does not understand the distinction between one project from another. The atmosphere does not recognise national frontiers. Climate adjudication must therefore look beyond the immediate proposal and examine the larger ecological system of which that project forms a part.”

He further said that recent Indian jurisprudence on climate marks an important development moving from environmental rights towards climate-related rights. “The recent Indian jurisprudence on climate has brought this question into sharper constitutional focus by recognising that the adverse effects of climate change can implicate fundamental rights of equality, livelihood, health and the conditions necessary for the meaningful enjoyment of rights.”

He said that the challenges immediately ahead will be more demanding as countries are transitioning to new forms of energy generation that require new infrastructure, new technologies and new patterns of land and resource use. “Cities will have to reconcile mobility, housing and economic activity with air quality, water security and ecological resilience. Climate disputes will also increasingly involve multiple actors and multiple jurisdictions,” CJI said.

Globally too, justice Kant said that courts across developed and developing countries have endeavoured to highlight that the “environment is not an inert backdrop to human ambition, but a living, breathing protagonist in the story of our shared well-being.”