Short answers, pulled from the story.
Climate change litigation is an emerging body of environmental law using legal proceedings to set case law precedent for climate action. Cases typically fall into five categories: constitutional law, administrative law, private law, fraud or consumer protection, and human rights. By December 2022, more than 2,180 such cases had been filed globally, including 1,522 in the United States.
The Urgenda case is described as the "world's first climate liability suit," in which the Urgenda Foundation and 900 co-plaintiffs sued the Dutch government for failing to reduce greenhouse gas emissions adequately. The District Court of The Hague ruled in the plaintiffs' favor in 2015. The Supreme Court of the Netherlands upheld the ruling in December 2019, requiring a 25% cut in carbon dioxide emissions from 1990 levels by the end of 2020.
Held v. Montana was the first constitutional law climate lawsuit to go to trial in the United States, beginning on the 12th of June 2023. The trial judge ruled in favor of sixteen youth plaintiffs on the 14th of August 2023, and Montana's Supreme Court upheld the ruling on the 18th of December 2024.
In May 2021, the district court of The Hague ordered Royal Dutch Shell to cut its global carbon emissions by 45% by the end of 2030, compared to 2019 levels. The ruling also affirmed Shell's responsibility for scope 3 emissions, produced by its suppliers and customers. A Dutch appeals court dismissed the specific reduction targets in 2024.
A 2017 United Nations report identified 884 climate cases across 24 countries. By July 2020, that number had nearly doubled to at least 1,550 cases in 38 countries. By December 2022, the total had grown to 2,180 cases, with 1,522 filed in the United States.
In July 2025, the International Court of Justice issued an advisory opinion stating that a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment is a human right. The court also stated that failing to protect the planet from climate change may violate international law. The opinion followed a United Nations resolution adopted on the 29th of March 2023 calling on the ICJ to clarify states' climate obligations.