Randall S. Abate, an associate professor in FAMU’s College of Law, believes the climate justice movement can and should use “public nuisance” lawsuits as a tool to fight for populations that are being disproportionately hurt by global climate change."The climate justice movement seeks to provide relief to vulnerable communities that have been disproportionately affected by climate change impacts,” Abate wrote in the Washington Law Review. “Public nuisance litigation for climate change impacts is a new and growing field that could provide the legal and policy underpinnings to help secure a viable foundation for climate justice in the United States and internationally."
In his article, Abate goes on to explain how “public nuisance” litigation could help the climate justice cause.
"By securing victories in the court system, these suits may succeed where the domestic environmental justice movement failed in seeking to merge environmental protection and human rights concerns into an actionable legal theory,” Abate writes.
Abate feels that a recent lawsuits that the Native (Eskimo) Village of Kivalina filed against ExxonMobil in the wake of coastal erosion aggravated by global warming “could help to institutionalize climate justice claims” by getting courts to recognize “a private right to be free from climate change impacts that threaten the sustainability of vulnerable communities."
Read Abate’s article here.
Awesome work professor.
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