Right to a Healthy Climate
Model Law
Human-induced climate change is touching every aspect of our world, altering the Earth’s chemical and physical cycles. Rising global temperatures are causing extreme weather, threats to human health, economic disruption, ocean acidification, drought, social instability, species extinction, ecosystem harm, and a wide range of other impacts.
Climate change threatens the very survival of the human species on this planet, as well as the survival of other species and ecosystems. As the United Nations warns, “There is alarming evidence that important tipping points, leading to irreversible changes in major ecosystems and the planetary climate system, may already have been reached or passed.”
Climate change is a global problem, but addressing it needs to happen at all levels. Thus, while there are U.N. international climate change gatherings (known as “COPs” for “Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change”), current international climate agreements still allow for temperature increases and targets for emissions reductions are not being met.
In fact, it is at the sub-national level that significant changes are being seen.
While cities and towns have generally legislated about local matters, climate change is too big an issue to ignore as higher levels of government are not meeting the challenge of our warming world. Cities, towns, and counties need to begin to reduce their own emissions, and pass laws that allow communities, including residents, to stop entities that are emitting large quantities of carbon dioxide which impact them. In other words, your city, town, or county could pass a law that is enforced outside of the boundaries of the community, to begin to try to actually stop the emissions which are causing climate change.
The Center for Democratic and Environmental Rights (CDER) developed a “Right to a Healthy Climate” model local law that can be adopted by cities, towns, and counties in the U.S. or Canada, or be directly proposed and voted on by community members through a citizen-sponsored initiative.
The model law would recognize a healthy climate – one in which carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is kept below 350 parts per million – as a human right and a right of species and ecosystems. Actions which violate those rights could then be challenged within a municipal court.
A healthy climate is a human right and a right of the natural world. This model law will, at last, recognize those rights in law and provide for their enforcement.
BY-LAW 2022-________
RIGHT TO A HEALTHY CLIMATE BY-LAW
A BY-LAW OF THE CITY OF ______________________________, SECURING
RIGHTS TO A HEALTHY AND LIVABLE CLIMATE FOR THE RESIDENTS,
SPECIES, AND ECOSYSTEMS OF ______________________________;
PROHIBITING CERTAIN ACTIVITIES WHICH VIOLATE THOSE RIGHTS AND
PROVIDING FOR ENFORCEMENT OF THOSE RIGHTS; PROVIDING FOR
SEVERABILITY AND FOR AN EFFECTIVE DATE.
Whereas, human-induced global climate change is touching every aspect of our world by altering the earth’s chemical and physical cycles, and those changes are now causing global temperatures to rise; and
Whereas, the recently released Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report (“Working Group III Sixth Assessment Report”) warns of irreparable impacts from human-induced global climate change if immediate action is not taken to reduce carbon emissions; and
Whereas, the global rise in temperatures will have a substantial impact in Canada, posing acute and lasting risks for communities, businesses, and natural ecosystems, which will include damages from extreme weather, threats to human health and wellbeing, economic disruption, food and water insecurity, forced migration, and social instability, while threatening all other life on earth and the richness and complexity of
natural biodiversity; and
Whereas, these forecasted impacts have the potential to change the very character and integrity of ______________________________, and impact every person living in _____________________________ along with the natural environment; and
Whereas, this crisis requires harnessing our political and legal institutions to limit those emissions contributing to climate change by elevating climate protections to the highest level available under law; and
Whereas, the highest level of protections available under law are legally-enforceable rights which belong to people and to nature; therefore,
The City Council of the Corporation of the City of ______________________________
hereby adopts this Right to a Healthy Climate By-Law:
A. Statement of Law: Climate Rights.
Every resident, species, and ecosystem of the City of
______________________________ has a legally-enforceable civil right to a healthy and livable climate.
B. Statement of Law: Prohibitions.
It shall be unlawful for any business entity, government, or governmental agency, individually or in concert with or contemporaneously with others, to engage in new or ongoing activities which substantially infringe, or are substantially detrimental to, the rights secured by this By-Law.
C. Statement of Law: Jurisdiction and Right to Enforce.
Every resident, species, and ecosystem of the City of
______________________________ has the right to enforce their right to a healthy and livable climate against activities which violate this By-Law’s rights and prohibitions, regardless of where such activities occur.
D. Implementation and Enforcement.
(1) Implementation and Enforcement by the City of
______________________________. The City of
______________________________ shall take all necessary actions to implement and enforce this By-Law.
(2) Enforcement by Residents, Species, and Ecosystems of the City of
______________________________. Any resident of the City of
______________________________ may enforce and defend the rights and provisions of this By-Law, either in the resident’s name or in the name of the affected species or ecosystem in the City of
______________________________ as the real party in interest, in any appropriate court, which shall issue injunctive relief to enjoin any activity which violates this By-Law.
(3) Contributory Impleader. In any action involving industrial activity (including, without limitation, power generating facilities), business entities, governments, and governmental agencies may implead others in the same industry that are violating this By-Law, to achieve equitable enforcement against contributory business entities, governments, or governmental agencies operating in that industry.
E. Recitals of Authority. This By-Law is adopted pursuant to the powers vested in the Corporation of the City of ______________________________ under and by virtue of the Ontario Municipal Act, 2001, and specifically, pursuant to 10(2)(5) of the Act which provides that a single-tier municipality may adopt a By-Law for the “economic, social and environmental well-being of the municipality, including respecting climate change,” and for the purpose of protecting the “health, safety, and well-being of persons,” and by virtue of all other powers enabling the municipality, and through the inherent right of the people of the City of
______________________________ to make and enforce laws, through their duly-elected Council, which recognize and expand civil and environmental rights at the municipal level.
F. Severability. If any word, phrase, clause, sentence, paragraph, section, or subsection of this By-Law is declared invalid by a court of competent jurisdiction, such invalidity shall not affect any of the remaining words, phrases, clauses, sentences, paragraphs, sections, or subsections of this By-Law.
G. Effective Date. This By-Law shall take effect immediately upon adoption by the City Council of the Corporation of the City of
______________________________.
H. Definitions.
a. “Healthy and Livable Climate,” as used within this By-Law, shall mean an atmosphere in which carbon dioxide exists in less than 350 parts permillion.
b. “Substantially detrimental to,” as used within this By-Law, shall mean activities which are likely to contribute substantially to the maintenance or worsening of human-induced global climate changes and their impacts, as a result of carbon dioxide emissions into the atmosphere.
c. “Substantially infringe,” as used within this By-Law, shall mean activities which substantially contribute to a climate in which carbon dioxide levels exceed 350 parts per million in the atmosphere.
d. An “industry,” as used within this By-Law, shall be defined by the two-digit division level of the United Nation’s “International Standard Industrial Classification of All Economic Activities (ISIC), Revision 4” (2008), and any revisions or later editions thereof.
How can my community make a meaningful difference on the global problem of climate change?
What does the Right to a Healthy Climate model law include?
Right to a Healthy Climate - Model Law
CDER developed a Right to a Healthy Climate model law which appears below and is also available here for download. If you are interested in learning more, please contact us at info@centerforenvironmentalrights.org.
Disclaimer: This by-law is being presented as a model by-law only and is not intended to be the delivery of legal advice. Use of the by-law will require customization of the by-law to the law of a specific jurisdiction, and should be used only in conjunction with an attorney duly licensed in the province, state, or territory where it is being proposed.