Environmental Litigation is taking off in Latin America: The Brazilian Supreme Court acknowledges the Paris agreement as a treaty with special and superior legal status.

Environmental Litigation is taking off in Latin America: The Brazilian Supreme Court acknowledges the Paris agreement as a treaty with special and superior legal status.
Photo via Valor econômico.

05-07-2022

João Victor Stuart

International Justice and Human Rights Coordinator, 

Global Human Rights Defence.

On 1st July 2022, the Brazilian Supreme Court gave its final 10x1 landmark word in regards to the case of the Climate fund (ADPF 708), condemning the Brazilian Federal government to stop blocking the functioning of the fund and to start to allocate the entire amount of money which is entitled to the fund to finance civil-society and other sorts of initiatives aimed to tackle climate change. 

A decisive vote came from Luis Roberto Barroso, one of the Supreme Court judges, who based his vote on Article 225 of the Brazilian Constitution, commenting that the right to a healthy environment is part of a climate matter. It strengthens the Brazilian environmental lawyers and activists’ claim that the right to a healthy climate, although not expressly mentioned in the Brazilian Constitution of 1988, is a corollary of the right to a healthy environment already enshrined in the document. 

Nevertheless, the main reason why the Court’s ruling represents a promising step ahead in the fight against global warming lies in its recognition of the Paris agreement, a historical legal document whose is to engage nations to reverse the environmental damages caused by the latest generations, as a treaty with a superior legal status, the so-called supralegality. It means that when and if the norms of the Paris agreement clash with other national Brazilian laws, they will prevail over them, forcing national environmental laws and policies to adapt themselves to the content of the Paris agreement.

Source and further reading:

STF: maioria entende que o governo deve destinar recursos para Fundo Clima (05th June 2022 – in Portuguese), from: https://www.jota.info/stf/do-supremo/stf-maioria-entende-que-o-governo-deve-destinar-recursos-para-fundo-clima-01072022