Climate Litigation Cases in Latin America and the Caribbean

Direct Action of Unconstitutionality (ADI) 7146 was filed by the PT, PSB, PSOL, and Rede Sustentabilidade parties before the Supreme Federal Court of Brazil, challenging Federal Law No. 14,285/2021, which modifies the protection regime for Permanent Preservation Areas (APPs) in urban zones. This law transfers to municipalities and the Federal District the authority to define protection zones along urban waterways, in contravention of the minimum limits established by the Forest Code (Law No. 12,651/2012).

This is a Fundamental Precept Breach Action (ADPF), filed by four political parties with a request for precautionary measures. The purpose of the action was to reactivate the federal environmental sanctioning process, which, according to the plaintiffs, had been paralyzed by actions of the Federal Government. The parties alleged that the Executive Branch had been dismantling the national environmental protection system, which was reflected in the increase in deforestation and fires in the Amazon and the Pantanal, even affecting Indigenous lands.

The legal action challenges a provisional measure from 2021 that provides for the automatic granting of environmental licenses for medium-risk companies, preventing licensing bodies from requesting additional information beyond that transmitted by the applicant in the National Network for the Simplification of Registration and Legalization of Companies and Businesses (Redesim) system.

This is an action brought by the Green Party (PV) against two Presidential Decrees (n. 10.341/2020 and n. 10.539/2020) and an Ordinance of the Ministry of Defense (n. 1.804/2020) that authorized the action of the Armed Forces in the fight against environmental crimes and outbreaks of fire “in the border strip, in indigenous lands, in federal environmental conservation units and in other federal areas of the states of the Legal Amazon.”

The Civil Association, San Nicolás Environmental Forum (FOMEA) filed a legal action against the company Atanor SCA, which it accuses of generating pollution and environmental damage in the region.

The Mapuche Confederation of Neuquén, the Permanent Assembly for Human Rights of Neuquén and the Argentine Association of Environmental Lawyers filed a criminal complaint against the heads of the Secretariat of Territorial Development and Environment and the Undersecretariat of Environment, and the companies YPFSA and SPM Argentina SA (subsidiary of Schlumberger Argentina and Schlumberger Oilfield Eastern Ltd., of the United States), for their responsibility regarding the hydrocarbon spill that oc

In 2012, the Porta Hermanos SA factory expanded its facilities to begin producing ethanol derived from the milling and fermentation of genetically modified corn (bioethanol). This production shift encroached upon various communal spaces in the San Antonio and Inaudi neighborhoods where it is located, and profoundly altered the community's social dynamics.

In August 2021, the Chief of the Atacameño Native Community of the Argentine Altiplano filed, on behalf of his community, an environmental protection action against the State and the Province of Catamarca before the Court of Justice of Catamarca, Argentina.

On November 22, 2022, 16 municipalities in Puerto Rico filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Puerto Rico, seeking to hold coal, oil, and gas companies accountable for losses resulting from storms during the 2017 hurricane season and ongoing economic losses since then. They accused the companies of misleading the public about climate change and conspiring to suppress clean energy alternatives.

In July 2024, the Puerto Rico Department of Justice filed a lawsuit in the San Juan Court of First Instance against multinational energy and petrochemical companies and their subsidiaries, in order to compensate for the environmental damage caused to the Island through illegal business practices.