Cases involving climate change have been litigated in the courts for some time, but new directions and trends have started to emerge. While the majority of climate litigation has occurred in the United States and other developed countries, cases in the Global South are growing both in terms of quantity and in the quality of their strategies and regulatory outcomes. However, so far climate litigation in the Global South has received scant attention from the literature. We argue that climate litigation in the Global South opens up avenues for progress in addressing climate change in highly vulnerable countries. We first highlight some of the capacity constraints experienced in Global South countries to provide context for the emerging trend of strategic climate litigation in the area. In spite of significant constraints experienced, the strategies adopted by litigants push the climate litigation agenda forward as a result of their outward-looking objective of combating ongoing environmental degradation, and, on a doctrinal level, the way in which they link climate change and human rights. Bearing in mind the limitations resulting from the selective nature of the cases examined, we draw upon Legal Opportunity Structures (LOS) approaches and identify two reasons for innovative cases and outcomes in Global South strategic climate litigation: (i) how litigants are either overcoming or using procedural requirements for access to environmental justice, and (ii) the existence of progressive legislative and judicial approaches to climate change. The strategies and outcomes from these judicial approaches in the Global South might be able to contribute to the further development of transnational climate change litigation.

中文翻译：

---

全球南方的气候诉讼：约束与创新

涉及气候变化的案件在法庭上的诉讼已经有一段时间了，但新的方向和趋势已经开始出现。虽然大多数气候诉讼发生在美国和其他发达国家，但全球南方的案件在数量和战略和监管结果的质量方面都在增长。然而，迄今为止，全球南方的气候诉讼很少受到文献的关注。我们认为，全球南方的气候诉讼为在高度脆弱的国家应对气候变化方面取得进展开辟了道路。我们首先强调全球南方国家经历的一些能力限制，为该地区战略气候诉讼的新兴趋势提供背景。尽管经历了重大限制，诉讼当事人采取的策略推动气候诉讼议程向前发展，因为他们的外部目标是对抗持续的环境退化，以及在理论层面上，它们将气候变化与人权联系起来的方式。考虑到所审查案件的选择性所造成的限制，我们利用法律机会结构 (LOS) 方法并确定全球南方战略气候诉讼中创新案件和结果的两个原因：(i) 诉讼当事人如何克服或使用获得环境正义的程序要求，以及 (ii) 存在应对气候变化的渐进立法和司法方法。