Legal experts unite to take a pledge against climate change
What is it about?
The world is facing serious negative effects of climate change. Tackling them requires immediate, large scale, and mainstream climate action. Keeping this in mind, a group of international lawyers have written an open letter to the global legal community. In the letter, the lawyers urge the community to actively take steps against climate change, even if they are not environmental lawyers. The letter is an invitation to all kinds of legal experts across the world, including judges, scholars, and students, to pledge to use and promote climate friendly practices during work. The authors also summed up the roles of different types of legal professionals. They discussed how each of them can independently adopt ecofriendly practices. The pledge can be signed at www.lawyersclimatepledge.org.
Why is it important?
Law is a very powerful tool when dealing with the ongoing ecological crisis. But institutions that are the main drivers of climate change have bent legal systems to their benefits. While scientists across the world are uniting on global platforms, real change will only occur if the legal community also rises to action. By uniting on a global scale, legal professionals can build a global framework. This framework will hold decision makers accountable for their actions and inactions related to climate change. KEY TAKEAWAY: This review explores how legal professionals with different roles can use their professions to fight climate change. It is meant as a way for legal experts to use their voices and make their best efforts to fight the climate change crisis.