‘Litigation to challenge large extractive projects is gaining traction in Africa’

As we pause collectively under various states of lockdown, the COVID-19 pandemic is a mirror showing us that our systems are broken, inequality has reached unsustainable proportions, violence against women has been normalised, and the destruction of the planet is a way of life.  Consumption patterns across the globe are fuelling the accelerated extraction of people’s labour and the resources that nature provides. Large-scale agriculture, with its associated land grabs and slave labour, together with fossil fuel extraction, has brought us to the brink: we are witness to large-scale violations of people’s rights and high levels of biodiversity loss and extinction rates.

Within this context, communities in Africa are increasingly finding ways to challenge the large extractive projects, which have been contributing to the climate emergency and loss of biodiversity. Climate-related litigation is a growing focus within the Africa context. Several communities and legal environmental organisations have gone to court to stop harmful projects or to assert the rights of communities where there have been violations of justice. 

…Earthlife Africa Johannesburg v. Minister of Environmental Affairs, this South African case was brought by Earthlife Africa, represented by the Centre for Environmental Rights challenging a proposed coal plant based on climate change impacts. This was the first case in South Africa to do so. Environmental authorisation was granted to build a 1200MW coal-fired power station in the Limpopo Province, without a climate impact assessment. On 8 March 2017, the High Court in Pretoria confirmed that climate change poses a substantial risk to sustainable development in SA, which is enshrined in the environmental right in the Constitution. The case sets an important precedent challenging decisions which rely on outdated energy policies supporting new coal developments and is informed by a key principle of equity, that of intergenerational justice.