Climate Litigation Cases in Latin America and the Caribbean

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.

In 2021, a farming couple filed a legal action against several public entities, including the Unit for Comprehensive Attention and Reparation for Victims (UARIV), because they were displaced and forced to abandon the land where they lived and worked due to the multiple floods of the Bojabá River in the Department of Arauca.

Human rights organizations and a group of experts filed a lawsuit of unconstitutionality before the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Colombia, on July 24, 2023, warning that article 57 of Law 99 was unconstitutional due to a deficit of constitutional protection by not including: (i) the obligation of prevention and environmental management by not including the effects of climate change and (ii) the obligation to guarantee protection against the effects on human rights.

Indigenous communities of the Wayúu people in La Guajira, in response to the diversion of the Bruno stream by the Carbones del Cerrejón company, have begun a campaign to defend this important waterway. The Bruno stream is a major tributary of the Ranchería River, the principal river of this Colombian department, and is surrounded by the tropical dry forest, a strategic ecosystem given its endangered status.

The Luis Carlos Pérez Lawyers' Collective Corporation and the Corporation for the Defense of Water, Territory and Ecosystems (CORDATEC) promoted a Popular Action against the National Hydrocarbons Agency (ANH), the National Environmental Licensing Authority, the Mayor's Office of San Martín and the Regional Corporation of Cesar; also, against the companies CONOCOPHILLIPS and CNE OIL & GAS, for the modification of a contract that went from allowing the construction of a conventional well to an unconventional one.

Indigenous Wayúu communities, along with human rights organizations and members of Congress, promoted an action to nullify the environmental permit that unifies the exploitation of coal, rail transport and port operation of the largest open-pit coal megaproject in Latin America located in La Guajira, Colombia, run by the company Carbones del Cerrejón owned by the multinationals BHP, AngloAmerican and Glencore.

Mr. Esteban Antonio Lagos, a member of the Public Interest Litigation Group (GLIP) of the University of the North, filed a simple annulment action against the Ministry of Mines and Energy, for the issuance of Decree No. 3004 of December 26, 2013 and Resolution No. 90341 of March 27, 2014.