Leveraging Existing Approaches and Tools to Secure Climate Justice in Africa

Abstract

The African continent’s vulnerability to climate risks is increasingly evident, posing a challenge around the fundamental rights obligations of African states to their people at a time when most African countries are focused on narrowing their infrastructure and development gaps. Given the recent wave of strategic litigation on socio-economic rights, this paper will consider the extent to which climate litigation might benefit from a rights-based approach. The paper will also highlight the utility of administrative and judicial challenges of impact assessment processes. We argue that the participatory components of these processes are potentially powerful avenues for the empowerment of local communities on climate change risks and appropriate mitigation and adaptation measures.