Environmental Justice and Climate Litigation: Expanding the Role of Courts in Protecting Vulnerable Communities

Abstract

Climate change is increasingly understood as an environmental justice problem because its harms are distributed unevenly and disproportionately imposed on groups with the least capacity to adapt, including indigenous peoples, coastal and small-island communities, informal urban residents, older persons, women, children, and low-income workers. Climate science confirms that vulnerability is shaped by exposure, sensitivity, and adaptive capacity, and that these factors are strongly mediated by inequality and governance (IPCC, 2022). In parallel, climate litigation has expanded globally as claimants challenge inadequate mitigation, adaptation failures, and climate-inconsistent public and private decision-making (United Nations Environment Programme [UNEP], 2023).

This article examines how courts can legitimately expand their role in protecting vulnerable communities through environmental justice-oriented climate adjudication. Using doctrinal and comparative methods, it synthesizes rights-based reasoning, due diligence standards informed by the best available science, and procedural justice requirements (information, participation, non-discrimination, and effective remedies). The analysis draws on landmark decisions such as Urgenda Foundation v. State of the Netherlands (Supreme Court of the Netherlands, 2019), Leghari v. Federation of Pakistan (Lahore High Court, 2015), the UN Human Rights Committee’s decision in Billy et al. v. Australia (Human Rights Committee, 2022), and the European Court of Human Rights judgment in Verein KlimaSeniorinnen Schweiz v. Switzerland (European Court of Human Rights, 2024). It also incorporates authoritative developments in international law, including the ITLOS advisory opinion on climate change and the law of the sea (International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea [ITLOS], 2024) and the ICJ advisory opinion on states’ climate obligations (International Court of Justice [ICJ], 2025).

The article argues that courts need not become climate policymakers to provide effective protection. By enforcing minimum legal duties grounded in rights, reasoned decision-making, and science-informed due diligence, courts can correct systemic under-protection of vulnerable communities while respecting institutional boundaries. The article concludes by proposing an Environmental Justice Climate Adjudication Framework for standing, standards of review, evidence handling, and remedies.