Hongshun, a paper company, released untreated waste water into the river through a hidden outfall.  It had been caught and fined twice already for doing the same thing.  The court of first instance held Hongshun liable for restoration costs and loss of ecological service functions.  Hongshun appealed on grounds of liability, damage valuation, and administrative liability.  The original judgement...

The Urgenda Foundation sued the Dutch government on behalf of 900 Dutch citizens for not having ambitious enough efforts to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Within the legal context of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, including the Kyoto Protocol and Paris Agreement, and European Union and Dutch law, Urgenda claimed that the Dutch government’s failure to commit to...

25 youth plaintiffs, including Indigenous youth, between the ages of 7 and 25, sued Colombian governmental bodies, municipalities, and three autonomous regional corporations operating in the Amazon Rainforest for “increased deforestation in the Amazon.” According to the Paris Agreement and Colombian Law 1753 of 2015, the government committed to reducing the net rate of Amazon deforestation to...

First, the plaintiff requested an order for the Minister for Climate Change Issues to review New Zealand’s 2050 greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction target based on Section 225 of the Climate Change Response Act, which requires a review following the publication of an Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report, and Section 224, on administrative law grounds. The Court ruled that this order...

A textiles colorant company, Dystar, arranged to dispose of its acid waste with a contractor at well below the market rate, despite knowledge that the contractor did not have the qualifications to dispose of the waste.  The contractor in turn engaged a third party to discretely discharge the hazardous waste into a river using a boat with a fake license plate. The court of first instance found the...

Zhenhua, a producer of plate glass, was sued by the All-China Environment Federation (ACEF) in public-interest litigation over air pollution.  ACEF requested that the court order Zhenhua to terminate emissions immediately, expand its prevention facilities, suspend operations until the prevention facilities are online, assume liability for damages caused by the excessive emissions, apologize to...

The Danzhou Municipal Bureau of Ecological and Environmental Protection (the Bureau) issued an administrative punishment decision against Sangde, a water treatment company, on the basis of a monitoring report which found unacceptable levels of pollutants in the company’s discharge.  Sangde sued the Bureau, alleging that key evidence was insufficient and the administrative punishment procedures...

The defendants engaged in a scheme to collect and sell endangered migratory birds by poisoning the water in a nature reserve and collecting the resulting dead birds in the following days.  Four defendants were found guilty of the crime of illegal killing of rare and endangered wildlife, while three accessory offenders were found guilty of a lesser crime of illegal hunting.  All seven defendants...

A chemical company, Jinhui, arranged to dispose of acid by-product by nominally selling the waste to a second company, Jiangzhong, at a low rate while simultaneously paying Jiangzhong transportation subsidies at a much higher rate. Jinhui continued to provide the waste despite knowledge that Jiangzhong did not have the qualifications to dispose of it, and did not intervene despite knowledge that...

The China Biodiversity Conservation and Green Development Foundation (the Foundation) brought environmental public-interest litigation against the company Ruitai for allegedly discharging excessive waste water into an evaporation pool, causing serious pollution to the Tengger Desert.  The court of first instance and appeals court both found that the Foundation did not have standing to sue.  The...