10.E. Round table: Public health and climate change: a litigation toolkit for public health practitioners
Authors:   Organised by: EUPHA-LAW, EUPHA-ENV, EUPHA-ETH, EUPHA-GH, Faculty of Public Health (UK), Groningen Centre for Health Law (Netherlands),   Chair persons: Chiara Cadeddu (Italy), Brigit Toebes (Netherlands)
Published: October 2023

Climate change is recognised as a public health emergency and one of the most significant challenges to the public's and the planet's health. The health impacts are well documented by the IPCC (1990-2023), Lancet Countdown (2015-2022) and a significant and growing body of research. In the absence of practical, enforceable international sanctions, litigation to oblige governments and private actors to address pollution and other environmental harms has developed over decades and is a strong domain of legal policy and practice in many countries. Cases are increasingly taken to international courts and tribunals. Litigation is also now well-recognised as a tool and strategy for climate action. In addition to environmental harms, legal arguments are now referencing the health impacts on populations, including children and future generations. The public health community has a longstanding interest and expertise in measuring, monitoring and evaluating climate change and its impacts on the health of people and the planet. However public health professionals are often unaware of the opportunities offered by litigation in local, national and international courts and tribunals, of the crucial role and value of public health professionals in such processes, and of the importance of strategic partnerships with legal practitioners as part of strategies to tackle the climate emergency. This roundtable workshop will share research and activities of a collaboration between the EUPHA-LAW, the Faculty of Public Health (UK) and the Groningen Centre for Health Law (GCHL), in collaboration with Lancet Countdown, to explore options to build the capacity of the public health community to better understand and use litigation for climate action. The workshop will describe experience and learning in the development of a toolkit for public health practitioners to understand their key role and support such legal action, including with written and oral court evidence. The workshop will also provide an update on a survey in collaboration with the Environmental Health Working Group of the World Federation of Public Health Associations to assess global interest in the toolkit and how the content should reflect the needs of developing countries. Following discussions at the EPH Conference in Berlin in 2022 and the World Congress on Public Health in May 2023, in June 2023 the issues will be addressed at the International Conference on Strategic Litigation and Public Health in Liverpool, UK, co-hosted by EUPHA-LAW, GCHL, Liverpool University and other partners. Workshop presentations will report on the findings from the international Conference in Liverpool, address legal developments in international climate change litigation (including recent and current European Cases), the role of public health practitioners, and the draft toolkit. The capacity building needs of public health professionals and opportunities to disseminate the toolkit will also be discussed.

Key messages

• Public health practitioners are increasingly asked to testify about the health impacts of climate and environmental harms. Knowledge, skills and interdisciplinary collaboration must be strengthened.

• The climate litigation toolkit will assist public health practitioners, environmental advocates, legal experts and affected communities to jointly use litigation to address human and planetary harms.

Speakers/Panelists

David Patterson

University of Groningen, Groningen, Netherlands

Farhang Tahzib

Faculty of Public Health, Haywards heath, UK

Scott Burris

Temple University Beasley School of Law, Philadelphia, USA

Anya Gopfert

University of Exeter, Exeter, UK

Monica Brînzac

EUPHAnxt