Climate Litigation Cases in Latin America and the Caribbean

Political parties filed two Direct Actions of Unconstitutionality by Omission (ADIO 59 and ADIO 60, for their acronym in Portuguese) before the Supreme Federal Court (STF) to have the omission of the Union in relation to the paralysis of the Amazon Fund recognized.

The Public Prosecutor's Office of Joinville promoted a public civil action against the corporation H. Carlos Schneider S/A Commerce and Industry and Others, for filling and draining a mangrove forest on an urban property, despite the fact that the environmental agencies Brazilian Institute of Forest Development (IBDF) and Santa Catarina Environment Institute (FATMA) issued negative technical notices to carry out works on said property.

This landmark case was first filed in 1993. The lawsuit alleged that from 1964 to 1992, Texaco (acquired by Chevron in 2001) operated in the Ecuadorian Amazon, dumping more than 16 billion gallons of toxic waste and affecting approximately 30,000 people, including indigenous communities. It was one of the first rulings in Ecuador's history in which affected communities took on an oil company and won a court judgment.

A group of grassroots organizations, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), private land users, activists, and independent professionals, grouped under the name Grenada Land Actors (GLA), sued the Planning and Development Authority because, between October 2019 and June 2023, it approved three large-scale development projects that threaten the environment and local communities located on Mount Hartman in St. George, in La Sagesse in St. David's, and in Levera in St.

In 2018, with the support and solidarity of other Indigenous nations and organizations aligned with the struggle, representatives of the A'i Cofán Sinangoe people filed a writ of amparo (a constitutional protection action) against five ministries and government agencies, seeking the suspension of several mining concessions granted in the riverine areas of the Aguarico, Chingual, and Cofanes rivers.

In July 2024, Indigenous communities belonging to the Tucabaca Municipal Wildlife Reserve and Natural Heritage Conservation Unit filed a class-action lawsuit against the mining company Walfremar SRL. This action stemmed from the fact that the Mining Administrative Jurisdictional Authority (AJAM), under the Ministry of Mining and Metallurgy, had authorized mining activity in the municipality of Roboré, Chiquitos province, Santa Cruz department.

The Brazilian organizations Arayara, the Articulation of Indigenous Peoples of Brazil (APIB), and the Rio dos Pardos Indigenous Territory – Kupli Village filed a public civil action (ACP) against the National Agency of Petroleum, Natural Gas and Biofuels (ANP), the Brazilian Institute of Environment and Renewable Natural Resources (IBAMA), and the Federal Union.

The Federal Public Prosecutor's Office (MPF) filed a Public Civil Action against the State of Pará and the Municipality of Santarém to demand that environmental permits for port and waterway projects in Santarém include mandatory environmental, climate, Indigenous, and Quilombola impact studies, as well as free, prior, and informed consultation (FPIC) with potentially affected traditional peoples and communities.

The Socialism and Liberty Party (PSOL) filed an Action for Noncompliance with Fundamental Precept (ADPF) with a request for precautionary measures, against the Federal Union and the State of São Paulo, due to omissions and commissions that violate the constitutional duty to protect the Cerrado and Mata Atlântica biomes, seriously affected by the forest fires that occurred in 2024.

In 2019, a private lawyer named Yefferson Mauricio Dueñas Gómez initiated a nullity action against Presidential Decree 1500 of August 6, 2018, which redefined the ancestral territory of the Arhuaco, Kogui, Wiwa, and Kankuamo peoples of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta (SNSM).