Legal action to protect the future from climate change.

The University of Iowa's Centre for Human Rights and the University of Vermont's Environmental Law Centre have jointly started an initiative to seek legal protection for future generations.

The Climate Legacy Initiative (CLI) is devoted to bringing the law of government in line with the laws of nature. Its goal is nothing less than to change the way we think about our world—and the way our laws deal with a world rocked by climate change.

The project has been launched with the publication of a policy paper.

Recalibrating the Law of Humans with the Laws of Nature: Climate Change, Human Rights, and Intergenerational Justice.

Many of the actions taken by industry today can be considered as genuine crimes, the spatial and temporal seperation of cause and effect often stymies action. In terms of principles, however, it is quite clear that the law has a lot to say about the infliction of damages on innocent parties through the persuit of profit, perticularly when the liklihood of this damage is known.

Although the legal system sits within a framework of govornance which has ultimate responsibility for public policy, it can certainly be a useful tool to drive policy if not a practicle means of solving our problems.

• Climate Change Action has featured previous posts on climate change and the law.

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