Guo Shuchang

                                                                                                                  Law School

Abstract: Climate change public interest litigation is the last defense to protect climate public interest. In order to deal with climate risks, China is gradually advancing the construction of climate change public interest litigation. In order to improve judicial attention to climate change, the Environmental Resources Case Types and Statistical Norms (Trial) listed climate change response cases as a new type of case, but lacked a unified definition of climate change litigation, so the meaning of climate change litigation needs to be clearly defined. In the process of constructing public interest litigation on climate change, the theory of liability for damage, risk prevention, climate rights and climate obligations provide the theoretical basis. Public interest litigation on climate change can fill the loopholes of traditional governance methods in addressing climate issues, make up for the deficiencies of existing climate legislation, and provide an important path to participate in climate governance. At present, specialized institutions, systematic policies and the existing environmental public interest litigation system have provided sufficient preparation for the construction of climate change public interest litigation. However, through the analysis of the current rules and practices, it is found that there are deficiencies in the scope of litigation, scope of plaintiff and rules of proof, which hinder the development of public interest litigation on climate change. We should improve the specific rules of climate change public interest litigation. Firstly, we should clarify the scope of accepting cases of climate change public interest litigation. In order to strengthen the supervision of the government, we should expand the scope of accepting cases of government administrative actions. In order to ensure normal production activities, mainly against the misconduct of large enterprises to initiate lawsuits; Considering the existence of related behavior, the merged public interest litigation should be regarded as an important type. In order to maintain the relative stability of law and system, we should limit the filing of strategic litigation. Secondly, we should expand the scope of prosecution subjects of climate change public interest litigation, let more subjects participate in climate governance, let procuratorial organs participate in the merged litigation, and give social organizations the qualifications to file administrative public interest litigation, and give citizens the qualifications to file public interest litigation, so that the government can file lawsuits after the occurrence of damage. Finally, the burden of proof in public interest litigation on climate change should be reasonably allocated, the scientific uncertainty of climate change should be considered, and the collection and review of scientific evidence should be emphasized. Improve the strength of government supervision, clear the standard of proof of government misconduct; Considering the ability of the original defendant to provide evidence, perfect the rules of proving causality in civil cases; For public interest litigation after merger, improve the specific rules of burden of proof distribution.

Read the full article here:       论我国气候变化公益诉讼的构建.pdf