Search Climate Insights Directory

The Center for International Environmental Law states that COP22 showed a continued commitment to the Paris Agreement, but overall progress was slow and current commitments are too low to keep global warming below 1.5 degrees. The document highlights the leadership of the Climate Vulnerable Forum (CVF) in committing to 100% renewable energy by 2030 or 2050, while calling for historic polluters to provide necessary funding and for governments to strengthen public accountability and human rights obligations in climate action.

The document is a joint statement condemning the execution-style murder of Jeremy Abraham Barrios Lima, an assistant to the Guatemalan Centre for Legal, Environmental and Social Action (CALAS). The signatories argue that this killing is part of a broader pattern of escalating violence against land and environment defenders in Guatemala and Latin America, specifically highlighting risks associated with Canadian-owned mining projects. They call for a full investigation into the murder and urge the Canadian government to ensure access to justice and respect for community decisions regarding large-scale mining.

The letter argues that the owners of the Dakota Access Pipeline are complicit in human rights abuses against Indigenous peoples in Standing Rock, North Dakota, and asserts that corporate and financial entities have an affirmative duty to prevent such impacts.

The Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL) expresses support for the opposition to the provisional application of CETA, asserting that the agreement's Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT) chapter imposes burdens on EU regulators that could slow environmental lawmaking and expose the EU to legal challenges from Canada. CIEL specifically highlights risks to the REACH regulation, noting Canada's history of challenging the EU's precautionary, hazard-based approach to dangerous substances.

The document examines how conservation policies are used to forcibly evict indigenous peoples from ancestral lands, often masking commercial interests. It highlights the disproportionate impact on women and children and provides case studies from India's Panna Tiger Reserve and Kenya's Embobut Forest to illustrate human rights violations and the failure of top-down conservation models.

The Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL) submitted a request to the Committee on the Rights of the Child urging the formal articulation of a child's right to a healthy environment as an implied right within the Convention on the Rights of the Child.

This report by the Center for International Environmental Law examines the systemic human rights violations faced by environmental human rights defenders (EHRDs) in Latin America, attributing the danger to weak rule of law, impunity, and conflicts with powerful governmental and corporate interests linked to development projects.

The Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL) argues that the Committee on the Rights of the Child should recognize an implied right to a healthy environment to ensure the effective realization of children's rights. Drawing on jurisprudence from other human rights bodies, CIEL demonstrates how a healthy environment is a necessary precondition for the rights to life, health, food, water, and an adequate standard of living. The document highlights that over 140 states have already incorporated environmental rights into their national constitutions, supporting an evolutionary interpretation of the Convention.

The World Bank's Safeguard policy is criticized for devaluing community voices by failing to require that crucial project information be shared with local populations. A survey of civil society actors across 40 countries indicates that 79% of communities learn about projects from partner organizations rather than the Bank. Barriers to information include intermittent internet access, lack of native language translations, and the use of dense technical jargon. The author advocates for guaranteed access to Environmental and Social Impact Assessments, Resettlement Action Plans, and Indigenous Peoples Plans to prevent forced evictions and ecosystem destruction, citing a recent $73.1 million funding withdrawal for a dam in the Democratic Republic of Congo as evidence that the Bank can act when standards are violated.

The Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL) criticizes the European Commission's June 2016 draft legal acts for Plant Protection Products and Biocidal Products Regulations. CIEL argues the proposed criteria for identifying endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs) are too restrictive because they only include substances 'known to' cause adverse effects, excluding 'presumed' and 'suspected' EDCs. The document claims this high burden of proof, potentially influenced by industry lobbying and US trade concerns, fails the precautionary principle and could exclude hundreds of harmful chemicals. CIEL specifically opposes the 'negligible risk' allowance in the Plant Protection Products Regulation, advocating instead for a hazard-based approach similar to that used for carcinogenic, mutagenic, or toxic to reproduction (CMR) substances.

The document argues that voluntary ESG reporting is insufficient due to lack of comparability and completeness, and that mandatory disclosure is necessary to address material financial risks associated with climate change, resource scarcity, and social justice norms.

The statement asserts that timely access to information is essential for community empowerment and meaningful participation in development projects. It specifically warns that new World Bank policies allowing project approval before the disclosure of environmental and social documents prevent communities from engaging in decisions that permanently alter their lives and complicate their ability to seek remedy for harms.

The letter argues that the European Commission is ignoring European Parliament recommendations regarding public health, environmental protection, and democratic oversight in TTIP negotiations.

The report concludes that the European Commission failed to follow the European Parliament's recommendations on TTIP, specifically by negotiating in areas with divergent EU-US rules, infringing on the EU regulatory process, and failing to meaningfully reform the investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) mechanism.

The analysis concludes that the European Commission failed to adhere to the European Parliament's recommendations regarding the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP). Specifically, the Commission failed to avoid negotiations in areas of divergent EU-US rules, failed to protect the EU regulatory process from TTIP influence, and failed to meaningfully reform the investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) mechanism.

The document outlines the severe risks faced by environmental human rights defenders (EHRDs), particularly indigenous people and women in the Americas and Cambodia. It identifies the root causes of these threats as the prioritization of profit from resource extraction and large-scale development over community rights and environmental health. The authors argue that a legally binding regional agreement based on Principle 10 of the Rio Declaration is essential to guarantee access to information, public participation, and justice in Latin America and the Caribbean to protect EHRDs and hold both State and corporate actors accountable.

CIEL President Carroll Muffett supports the collaboration of US state Attorneys General in investigating fossil fuel companies for climate deception, noting that five jurisdictions—New York, California, Maryland, Massachusetts, and the US Virgin Islands—have confirmed investigations into Exxon.

The Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL) provides a set of recommendations to the World Bank regarding the Second Draft of its Environmental and Social Framework (ESF). CIEL expresses concern over a shift from compliance-based standards to 'adaptive risk management,' arguing that this reduces the Bank's accountability and may jeopardize the rights of project-affected communities. The document outlines specific improvements needed in areas such as human rights commitments, chemicals management, climate change quantification, and the effectiveness of grievance mechanisms.

CIEL is participating in a three-day consultation in Washington, DC, as part of a reform process started in 2012 to improve the World Bank's project loan policies. CIEL argues that the Bank has prioritised investment volume over safety and environmental protections, and is pushing for standards that guarantee compliance with international law.

Carroll Muffett of the Center for International Environmental Law criticizes TransCanada's use of the Investment Chapter of NAFTA to sue the United States for over $15 billion, citing this as evidence that investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) allows corporations to bypass democratic decisions made in the public interest, specifically regarding the Keystone XL pipeline.