ENVIRONMENTAL COURT CASES ACROSS THE WORLD

This case study describes the first climate change court case in South Africa, where the non-profit Earthlife Africa challenged the environmental authorisation of the Thabametsi coal-fired power station due to the absence of a climate impact assessment.

• The High Court of Pretoria ruled on 8 March 2017 that the decision to grant environmental authorisation for the 1200MW Thabametsi coal-fired power station was irrational, unreasonable, and based on a material error of law because the decision-maker failed to consider climate change impacts before granting the authorisation.
• The Thabametsi power station was projected to have an operational lifespan of 40 years and emit 8.2 million tons of carbon dioxide equivalent annually, which would account for up to 2% of South Africa's total greenhouse gas emissions by 2020 and up to 3.9% by 2050.
• The court established that climate change represents a substantial risk to sustainable development in South Africa and that the principle of intergenerational justice requires adequate consideration of climate change in such decisions.
• Following the court's order to reconsider the appeal with a climate change impact assessment, the Minister again upheld the authorisation. This led to further High Court review proceedings by Earthlife Africa and groundWork. Additionally, on 13 January 2019, Standard Bank, FirstRand, and Nedbank withdrew their financing for the project.

APA

Natural Justice (2019). ENVIRONMENTAL COURT CASES ACROSS THE WORLD. https://naturaljustice.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Earthlife-Africa_final.pdf

Chicago

Natural Justice. ENVIRONMENTAL COURT CASES ACROSS THE WORLD. 2019. https://naturaljustice.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Earthlife-Africa_final.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=Natural Justice |title=ENVIRONMENTAL COURT CASES ACROSS THE WORLD |date=December 2019 |url=https://naturaljustice.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Earthlife-Africa_final.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{naturaljustice2019environmental, author = {{Natural Justice}}, title = {{ENVIRONMENTAL COURT CASES ACROSS THE WORLD}}, institution = {Natural Justice}, year = {2019}, month = dec, url = {https://naturaljustice.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Earthlife-Africa_final.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }