CLA News / Council Member at Large Melinda Janki reports on a lecture in Guyana by the Right Hon. Lord Carnwath CVO on “Climate change litigation – a global perspective”
On 15th February 2025, the Right Hon. Lord Carnwath CVO delivered a lecture on ‘Climate Change Litigation – a Global Perspective’ in Georgetown Guyana. The event was opened by the Hon. Carl Singh, former Chancellor of the Judiciary (acting) who graciously paid tribute to Lord Carnwath for his long and distinguished judicial career culminating in his appointment to the UK Supreme Court, and for his commitment in promoting the rule of law especially in the context of climate change. The in-person audience included the Chancellor of the Judiciary (acting) and other judges, magistrates, the former Chief Justice of Belize, the president of the Guyana Bar Association, Guyana’s CLA council member who is also a Vice-President of the GBA, other members of the legal profession, the former Speaker of the National Assembly, former / current MPs, the British High Commissioner, public interest litigants in cases challenging fossil fuels and of course the press, plus an-online audience of over 40 persons.
A section of the audience with Hon. Justice Cummings-Edwards Chancellor of the Judiciary (acting), Teni Housty CLA council representative for Guyana, Tim Prudhoe, Hon. Kenneth Benjamin (former chief justice of Belize), and Justice (ret) Courtney Abel in the first row.
Lord Carnwath’s lecture was extremely well-received. It was covered in the national press[1] and even inspired a cartoon from Guyana’s foremost cartoonist! Requests for the written text have come in from judges, lawyers and law students in Guyana and overseas. The lecture will shortly be published by the Greenheart Institute which sponsored the event. It will be available online for everyone. And will include contributions from the Hon. Justice Carl Singh and Steven Thiru, President of the Commonwealth Lawyers Association.
The event was organised by the Justice Institute Guyana with the Commonwealth Lawyers Association and the firm of Stanbrook Prudhoe as partners. Enormous thanks are due to Brigid Watson the CLA Secretary-General for her sterling support, to Steven Thiru for his gracious recorded message, to Peter Maynard the Immediate Past President who came to Guyana specially for the event and delivered the thank you and closing remarks, and to Tim Prudhoe and the Stanbrook Prudhoe Guyana team.
Head Table: Dr Peter Maynard, Lord Carnwath, Hon. Carl Singh, Melinda Janki
Lord Carnwath confirmed that he had been invited to speak about global climate change litigation and would not be discussing the litigation around ExxonMobil’s activities in Guyana. As he courteously stated, he was not there to tread on the toes of Guyana’s excellent judges.
Lord Carnwath’s lecture came at a very interesting time in a very interesting place. An interesting time because of the existential threat posed by climate change. An interesting place for three reasons. First, Guyana is one of the countries that is most vulnerable to rising sea-levels. The capital city and stretches of coastland are up to six feet below sea-level and are protected by a small sea wall. One prediction is that as sea-levels rise, much of Georgetown and this coastal area will be submerged by 2030. Second, ironically Guyana has contributed nothing to the global warming which causes climate change, but actively combats it. Guyana’s forests remove more greenhouse gas pollution from the atmosphere than Guyana’s people produce from going about their daily lives. Guyana is (and always has been) a carbon sink – one of a tiny number. This makes Guyana a true climate leader and a model for other countries to follow. Third, the government of Guyana intends to convert Guyana into a petrostate and intends to increase oil production and pivot Guyana to use gas for energy. This will inevitably increase the greenhouse gas pollution that drives global warming and its dangerous impacts.
Against this complex background of a carbon sink engaged in petroleum production while being so vulnerable to rising sea levels, Lord Carnwath brought the audience right up to date with global climate change litigation. The overall theme of the lecture was law as the bridge between scientific knowledge and political action i.e. the legal rules that convert knowledge of what needs to be done into rules that govern human behaviour along with the crucial role of the judges in forcing politicians to face up to scientific realities. Lord Carnwath pointed out that in none of the many cases around the world has anyone sought to call evidence challenging the scientific consensus on the reality of climate change and its potentially catastrophic consequences. It was enlightening and encouraging to learn that judges around the world already fully accept the science of climate change and cases are generally more about law than about establishing climate change as a phenomena. Undoubtedly it saves precious judicial time if the parties do not dispute established scientific principles but sensibly agree on the science and the relevant facts, thereby leaving the court free to concentrate more on the law, legal principles and legal remedies.
Not all cases succeed but even in cases where the judiciary did not grant a remedy because they felt it was encroaching on the executive or legislature arms of government, there was still clear acceptance of the science and the need for action. Lord Carnwath pointed to two courts that have crafted new remedies to deal with the unprecedented situation of climate change. The Indian Supreme Court established an expert committee to consider how best to protect the Great Indian Bustard while meeting the need to move to renewable energy. In Pakistan a judge ordered the setting up of an independent Climate Change Commission. In both cases, as Lord Carnwath explained, the court was refraining from making policy decisions but was seeking to ensure that the executive could give practical effect to its own policies.
Lord Carnwath also spoke about Guyana’s constitution. He referred specifically to Article 149J of the Constitution which recognises that every person in Guyana has a fundamental right to a healthy environment and imposes duties on the State to protect the environment; Article 36 which states that the wellbeing of the nation depends upon preserving clean air, fertile soils pure water and the rich diversity of plants, animals and ecosystems; and Article 25 which imposes a duty on every citizen to participate in activities designed to improve the environment and protect the health of the nation. He emphasised that provisions of this kind can have ‘real teeth’ when it comes to environmental litigation.
Lord Carnwath made the key point however that it is not necessary to have constitutional provisions specifically on the environment but that “constitutional rights to the protection of life or of the home include the right to protection from the effects of climate change” , illustrating this by reference to two cases – the great Indian bustard case and the case of senior Swiss women. In the Indian case the court said that the right to life under the constitution implies a constitutional duty of the State “to take effective measures to mitigate climate change and ensure that all individuals have the necessary capacity to adapt to the climate crisis” and they also said that this duty had to be balanced against the duty to protect the endangered Great Bustard and neither goal could be sacrificed. The Swiss case found that the claimants had a right to be protected from the serious adverse effects of climate change on their lives, wellbeing and quality of life.
This lecture demonstrated how important and flexible the law can be. As Lord Carnwath observed these and other cases provide ‘affirmation by a variety of different legal tools, of the basic right of everyone to be protected from the damaging effects of climate change, and of the duty of all parties, state, corporate or individual, to pay their part in securing that protection’.
It is interesting that across the globe the judiciary are up to date with science and understand the threats, while in the political space there are climate deniers. The USA, the biggest greenhouse gas polluter now and historically, has even elected as its president a climate denier who does not believe in the science and who intends to increase fossil fuel production, a position which Lord Carnwath aptly described as ‘bizarre and frightening.’ In contrast Lord Carnwath pointed out that in China which he visited last November there has been astonishing development of environmental courts under the general guidance of the environmental division of the Supreme Peoples’ Court. The court’s guidance to the lower courts on climate change makes clear that “achieving carbon peaking and carbon neutrality is a major strategic goal” and this has support of the communist leadership.
Judges across the Commonwealth are already having to apply the law in climate change cases and there is already a rich Commonwealth jurisprudence on climate change. Lord Carnwath’s lecture contains a wealth of knowledge for reflection and discussion as we Commonwealth lawyers come together to protect our Commonwealth and our planet.
Melinda Janki
Council Member at Large
FOOTNOTE:
[1] https://www.stabroeknews.com/2025/02/14/news/guyana/former-justice-of-uk-supreme-court-here-for-climate-litigation-lecture/ https://www.stabroeknews.com/2025/02/20/news/guyana/judiciary-has-critical-role-in-enforcing-environmental-protections/ https://demerarawaves.com/2025/02/16/former-uk-supreme-court-judge-says-guyanas-constitution-contains-strong-weapons-against-environmental-problems/
