Columnists
The legal profession should seek to be a key player in climate action
Monday August 21 2023
From left: Law Society of Kenya member Mwaura Kabata, LSK President Eric Theuri and LSK practice Standard and Ethics Committee Linda Kiome addressing journalists on May 17, 2023. PHOTO | BONFACE BOGITA | NMG
Law provides a very powerful tool for addressing the impacts of climate change globally. It is for this reason that the number of cases brought before courts seeking remedies related to climate change has increased over the years.
The latest report produced by the United Nations Environment Programme in partnership with Columbia Law School indicates that as at the end of 2022, there were a total of 2,280 climate change litigation cases globally.
Although most of the cases, 1,522, are in the USA alone, the fact that all regions have some active litigation is indicative of the powerful role of law and courts. Africa had 2.3 percent of the cases, with Kenya having only two
This is the background against which members of the Law Society of Kenya held their annual conference in Diani this past week.
The theme of this year’s discussions was Climate Change: From Theory to Action, The Role of the Legal Profession in Climate Justice.
While there have been discussions on the environment and climate change in previous trainings of the law society, this was the first time that it was the substantive theme for an annual conference.
The levels of engagement by conference participants were also very gratifying.
Ideas on how lawyers can contribute more to climate action were explored out of the recognition that climate change is an existential threat to humanity requiring the involvement of all actors in dealing with it.
One of the outcomes of the meeting is the need for lawyers and law firms to integrate climate action into their daily practice, both in how they run their businesses and in the activities they perform on behalf of their clients.
Climate justice is about equity and fairness and calls for protecting the rights of the indigent and marginalised members of society.
It is important therefore that lawyers speak for and represent the rights of communities, engage much more in public interest cases and free legal representation.
The majority of those who bear the brunt of climate change do not have the means to seek legal protection and will rely on public-spirited lawyers to ventilate their cases.
This will ensure that the next time that the global climate change report is prepared there are more than just two cases.
The discussions took place just a few weeks before the Africa Climate Summit, a space for the continent to take leadership of the climate agenda and deliberate both on the threats and actions the African countries can take moving forward. Lawyers have an important role in these discussions beyond just litigation.
They will help countries to develop legal agreements, prepare legal and policy responses and financing modalities.
The summit will be held in Kenya and the start of the next month, and the law society must engage more robustly, share the outcomes of its annual conference, and seek to be a key player in climate action moving forward.
The writer is a law professor at the University of Nairobi.