The International Rights of Nature Tribunal Puts Fossil Fuels on Trial at Climate Week NYC

Sunday’s Tribunal features testimony from individuals who have personally experienced ecological destruction at the hands of fossil fuels

NEW YORK, Sept. 20, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — The International Rights of Nature Tribunal will host its 6th session on September 22nd, 2024 in New York to hold the fossil fuel industry accountable for its ecological destruction. Using the Rights of Nature – an approach to environmental law that recognizes that Nature is a living subject with its own inherent rights – the End of the Fossil Fuel Era Tribunal will feature cases on pipeline projects, oil spills, and sacrifice zones.

In Ecuador, the Rights of Nature were recognized into the Constitution in 2008 with 39 countries now leveraging Rights of Nature cases. While new analysis indicates a steep rise in climate-focused fossil fuel industry lawsuits, Sunday’s event illustrates the Rights of Nature in action revealing the impacts and expansion of fossil fuels.

Organized like a traditional court proceeding, judges include Rev. Lennox Yearwood, Tzeporah Berman, and Tom B.K. Goldtooth among other renowned activists and human rights defenders. Sunday’s Tribunal is the first of two sessions on the International Rights of Nature Tribunal’s road to COP30 – a New Pact with Mother Earth: the End of the Fossil Fuel Era and the Post Extractivism Non-Mining Era (planned for March 2025). Sunday’s hearing will include testimony from cases such as:

The Talara Refinery and New Amazon Oil Expansion in the Peruvian Amazon that threatens Indigenous territories including the Wampis and Achuar peoples.
The 2023 oil spill in the world’s most biodiverse marine habitat in the Philippines’ Verde Island Passage.
The 303-mile extension of the Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) in North Carolina that’s already racked up $2.5 million in fines.
The deadly concentration of pollution in Louisiana‘s Cancer Alley impacting predominantly black communities.
The South African Musina-Makhado Special Economic Zone, projecting over one billion tons of CO2 emissions and greenlit despite a rejected Environmental Impact Assessment scientific report.