Li Quan

                                                                                                         Law School

Abstract: In recent years, climate change has become a global challenge, which has aroused great attention of the international community. Climate change litigation is regarded by the international community as an effective way to deal with climate change and solve the problem of global warming, and is widely practiced in the United States, Australia, the United Kingdom and other countries. Unfortunately, as a large emitter of carbon, our country has not yet been able to establish the climate change litigation system. Extreme climate change, melting glaciers, reduced food production and species extinction caused by excessive emissions of greenhouse gases not only harm the interests of contemporary people, but also inevitably have a negative impact on the living environment of future generations, which is a typical public interest. It is urgent to make necessary theoretical response on how to deal with climate change through public interest litigation and judicial supervision on the behavior of administrative organs. Administrative public interest litigation on climate change, which is derived from climate change litigation, refers to litigation targeting administrative actions made by administrative organs or other administrative subjects against greenhouse gas emissions. It has three significant characteristics of climate public welfare, risk prevention and litigation convenience. Based on the theory of climate human rights, the theory of state duty of care, and the theory of intergenerational justice, it can respond to climate change issues from the perspective of administrative public interest litigation. From the perspective of necessity, the construction of administrative public interest litigation on climate change can make up for the shortcomings of the slow progress of legislation, weak operability of legal provisions in the field of climate change, and promote the judicial process of our "double carbon" goal establishment. From the point of feasibility, the scope of accepting cases of our country's administrative public interest litigation is gradually expanding, and the related policy documents, local laws and regulations were introduced continuously, and the local judicial organs' practical experience in handling climate change litigation cases paved the way for the establishment of climate change administrative public interest litigation. To establish administrative public interest litigation on climate change, the scope of accepting cases should include not only specific administrative acts related to climate change, but also administrative acts that cause major climate risks and normative documents related to climate change. The litigants of administrative public interest litigation on climate change should include both procuratorial organs and relevant public interest organizations, and ordinary citizens should be granted the right to Sue in due course. As for the jurisdiction of public interest litigation on climate change, the rules of centralized jurisdiction can be clarified and the jurisdiction can be upgraded with flexibility. In addition, it is necessary to standardize the examination standards for the legitimacy and rationality of administrative actions related to climate change in administrative public interest litigation, focusing on whether administrative actions have significant risks of causing climate change.

Read the full article here:       【气候变化】论我国气候变化行政公益诉讼的构建.pdf