CJLL - Climate Justice Living Lab ENG

An ambitious project: training students, PhD candidates, legal professionals, journalists, and activists over three years to help tackle the climate crisis. The goal: to advance climate justice both in academic spaces and in courtrooms.

Visit the dedicated platform: www.cjll.eu

Context

The ongoing climate crisis is having increasingly dramatic impacts across all regions of the planet. Addressing this trend is possible, but it requires a rapid and drastic reduction in greenhouse gas emissions. Despite the Paris Agreement signed in 2015, which binds states to act to limit global temperature rise to +1.5°C by the end of the century, emissions continue to grow and current commitments remain insufficient to meet this target, putting the planet on track for a catastrophic increase of around 3°C.

In the face of state inaction and the lack of accountability of corporations — particularly fossil fuel companies — the use of legal tools has grown significantly in recent years as a way to push those responsible to adopt ambitious climate policies.

Civil society (residents, including very young people, associations, NGOs, foundations, etc.) is bringing governments, public authorities, and corporations to court, achieving important victories in many countries. To date, there are around 2,500 climate litigation cases ongoing worldwide.

This new field of law represents both an opportunity and a challenge for legal professions: lawyers, judges, and consultants need to update their knowledge and train in climate law, climate justice, and new legal tools. The same applies to students, journalists, and activists, for whom knowledge and awareness of these issues are essential for a full understanding of the current scenario.

Project

n this context, the CJLL – Climate Justice Living Lab project, by bringing together social organizations and academic institutions, aims to strengthen the role of higher education in addressing the social challenges related to climate change, through the capacity building of those who can become real agents of change in the field of law and climate justice.

The objective is to improve cross-sector cooperation and the availability of training programmes in this field, providing in-depth knowledge and understanding of climate justice and current legal issues.

The project will implement and test a university-level training module on climate justice in the participating universities, and promote intensive training opportunities for law students, as well as students from other faculties, legal professionals, journalists, and activists.

Over the three years of work, a training manual and a digital platform (the Living Lab) will also be developed and disseminated, containing educational resources, case studies, and a networking and exchange space for users.

Activities

Discover all the project activities and outputs:

Register on the CJLL platform to access the reserved area with the library of training resources, research and job opportunities, and access to the international project network. You can sign up here.