Climate Litigation Cases in Latin America and the Caribbean

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.

In 2018, the Waorani people of Pastaza sued the Ecuadorian state for attempting to auction their lands for oil exploration without conducting a prior, free, and informed consultation, as required by the Constitution and international treaties. They also argued that the state violated their right to a healthy environment, failed to fulfill its responsibilities, and failed to protect their ancestral territories and biodiversity.

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.

This case involves a petition (PET) filed with the Supreme Federal Court (STF) by Senators Fabiano Contarato and Randolph Frederich Rodrigues Alves, and Representative Joenia Batista de Carvalho, seeking an investigation into alleged misconduct by Ricardo Salles, then Brazil's Minister of the Environment. The petitioners argued that Salles's actions while serving as Minister violated the duty of administrative probity and decorum required of the office, particularly regarding Brazilian climate and environmental policy.

This is a Public Civil Action, with a request for urgent protection, promoted by the Federal Public Ministry (MPF) against the State of Amazonas and the National Foundation of Indigenous Peoples (FUNAI), with the objective of suspending the carbon credits/REDD+ project implemented by the Secretariat of the Environment of the State of Amazonas (SEMA/AM) in state conservation units inhabited by indigenous peoples, river dwellers and traditional communities.

The organization Observatório do Clima filed a Public Civil Action against the Ministry of the Environment (MMA) and the Federal Union, seeking to compel the Brazilian government to update its National Climate Change Plan (Plano Nacional sobre Mudança do Clima or Plano Clima). The central argument was that the current plan, developed in 2008, was outdated in light of Law 12.187/2009 (PNMC), the National Environmental Policy, the Paris Agreement, and recent scientific evidence presented by the IPCC in the AR6 report.

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).

Various ethnic communities filed a protective action against government authorities to stop the intensive and large-scale use of various illegal mining and logging methods in the Atrato River basin (Chocó).

In December 2022, twelve Pastos people from the Cumbal, Mayasquer, Panam and Chiles reserves in Nariño, Colombia, learned of the existence of a contract between the authority of the indigenous community of Gran Cumbal and SVP Business SAS for the purchase of carbon bonds related to the REDD+ project “Pachamama Cumbal”.