Advancing Corporate Climate Accountability Post the Inter-American Court Advisory Opinion on Human Rights and the Climate Emergency

This blog post featured on the European Journal of International Law and written by Eoin Jackson, PhD Candidate in Law at London School of Economics, discusses the recent landmark Advisory Opinion on Human Rights and the Climate Emergency delivered by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights.

Introduction

There is much to analyse in the landmark Advisory Opinion on Human Rights and the Climate Emergency delivered by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights last week. The establishment of a new right to stable a climate and recognition of a jus cogens obligation not to generate irreversible damage to the climate and the environment are likely to be of significant interest. One aspect of the Opinion that deserves particular attention is the Court’s approach to corporate climate accountability. Although Latin American and Caribbean states bear relatively little historical responsibility for climate change, a number of prominent fossil fuel companies (both state-owned and private) have expanded investments in the region, while many primarily Western companies have been accused of greenwashing their activities using poorly monitored carbon credit schemes  in critical carbon sinks like the Amazon. It is in this context that the Advisory Opinion approach to corporate climate accountability should be viewed as an overall useful development of the intersection between business and human rights and corporate climate accountability.