Climate Litigation Cases in Latin America and the Caribbean

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.

A group of Colombian citizens filed a Public Action of Unconstitutionality (API) with the Constitutional Court, motivated by the national government's persistent failure to fulfill its duties regarding the delimitation, zoning, and environmental management of the territory, particularly the country's most vulnerable and important ecosystems, such as the páramos (high-altitude Andean ecosystems).

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.

Greenpeace Mexico, in a joint strategy with the Mexican Center for Environmental Law, filed an injunction against the Agreement to guarantee the efficiency, quality, reliability, continuity and security of the National Electric System, issued by the National Energy Control Center and the Agreement that issues the Policy of Reliability, Security, Continuity and Quality in the National Electric System, published by the Ministry of Energy.

On April 9, 2018, the NGO OIKOS Environmental Network filed a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality and international human rights standards of Decree No. 248/2018 issued by the Ministry of Economy, Infrastructure, and Energy of the Province of Mendoza. This decree regulates the environmental impact assessment procedure for hydrocarbon exploration and extraction activities in unconventional formations (fracking).

The case arose from the environmental approval of the "Central Eléctrica Canelillo" project, a diesel-based backup power generation plant with a capacity of 120 MW, located in the Coquimbo Region.

Residents of Tocopilla, accompanied by the environmental organizations Chile Sustentable, Greenpeace and the Inter-American Association for Environmental Defense (AIDA), filed a protection appeal before the Santiago Court of Appeals requesting that the immediate cessation of the forced and accelerated burning of the excess coal from the Norgener thermoelectric power plant (composed of the Norgener 1 and 2 units) of the company AES Andes SA, which amounts to 94,000 tons, be ordered.

AIDA, the women's group MUZOSARE, and the civil society organization Chile Sustentable filed an administrative appeal with the National Energy Commission (CNE) to invalidate the regulation issued by that same body in October 2021, which governs the "inflexible gas" system for the entire country. This system prioritizes electricity generated from fossil gas combustion for inclusion in the grid, displacing other energy sources, including renewables.