Climate Litigation Cases in Latin America and the Caribbean

A group of young people, accompanied by the Northwest Environmental Defense organization, filed a lawsuit against the Mexican government to demand that it comply with the General Law on Climate Change and issue the regulations and public policies derived from it.

The Mexican Center for Environmental Law (CEMDA) filed an amparo lawsuit against Resolution RES/893/2020, dated May 28, 2020, and the Notice published in the Official Gazette of the Federation on June 10, 2020, issued by the Federal Electricity Commission (CFE), through which the rates that electricity generators from renewable sources must pay for the transmission service of the energy transmitted to users (Stamp Duty Rates) were disproportionately increased (from 500% to 800%).

The case concerns a lawsuit against the Guyanese government's approval of an ExxonMobil oil megaproject off the coast of Guyana, which has potential climate impacts. The plaintiffs argued that this approval violates the right to a healthy environment, protected by the Guyanese Constitution, as well as the rights of future generations to sustainable development. It is the first climate litigation case in the Caribbean.

Two Guatemalan companies, Oxec SA and Oxec II SA, oversaw a pair of hydroelectric dam projects planned for the Cahabón River. Both companies are owned by Energy Resources Capital Corporation, registered in Panama. Local Indigenous communities reported that they were not formally consulted and expressed concern that the dams would damage their environment and violate their rights.

In May 2022, Ecuadorian environmental defenders, led by lawyer Yaku Pérez, and communities in the Quimsacocha moorland area promoted a protective action against the Canadian mining company Dundee Precious Metals, requesting a prior, free and informed consultation with the communities of the area regarding the Loma Larga mining project, due to prospecting, exploration and exploitation activities of metallic mining in water sources, moorlands, wetlands, forests and in all the recharge and water regulation zones of the Quimsacocha hydrological system.

On April 26, 2010, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) filed a lawsuit against the Ecuadorian State before the Inter-American Court of Human Rights. This action was brought by the Association of the Kichwa People of Sarayaku, denouncing the unauthorized entry of the Argentine company Compañía General de Combustibles (CGC) and the Ecuadorian security forces into their territory between 2002 and 2003.

On May 17, 2018, community members from the Molleturo parish in the province of Azuay filed a protective action for the violation of their constitutional rights, including the right to due process and to prior, free, and informed consultation. They were supported by the Federation of Indigenous and Peasant Organizations of Azuay (FOA), the Union of Defenders of Water and Nature (UNAGUA), and the Church of Cuenca.

Farmers from a community around the Fierro Urco hill filed a protective action in the city of Loja, Ecuador, against the Ministry of Environment, Water and Ecological Transition, for having granted licenses, environmental registrations and certificates of non-impact on water sources for several mining concessions within the Fierro Urco hill, without having guaranteed the constitutional right to environmental consultation, the protection of water, the rights of Nature and the healthy and ecologically balanced environment of the inhabitants of this area.

The International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), Ecological Action, Union of Those Affected by Texaco (UDAPT), and members of the Miwaguno indigenous community filed a protective action before the Provincial Court of Justice of Orellana against the oil company PetroOriental SA —a subsidiary of the Chinese transnational corporations China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) and China Petrochemical Corporation (SINOPEC)— for the burning and venting of gas in the flares of Block 14 of the Ecuadorian Amazon Region, carried out during oil extraction.

A group of nine girls from the provinces of Sucumbíos and Orellana filed a protective action against the Ecuadorian State for the annual authorization granted by the Ministry of Energy and Non-Renewable Natural Resources, through the Secretariat of Hydrocarbons, to each of the oil companies that use flares for burning gas in the Ecuadorian Amazon.