中国气候变化诉讼的困境与出路

Difficulties and Solutions of Climate Change Litigation in China

近年来,气候变化诉讼在全球范围内不断增长,气候司法成为应对气候变化的重要途径。在司法实践中,中国已经出现了广义上的气候变化诉讼,其中最为典型的莫过于大气污染公益诉讼。大气污染公益诉讼虽然没有直接提出气候变化相关的问题,但其诉讼结果对减缓和适应气候变化具有显著影响。由于中国的诉讼环境和传统,现有的气候变化立法仍有所不足。在司法实践中,气候变化诉讼也面临着原告资格模糊、因果关系难以证明等现实困境。本文拟针对中国气候变化诉讼制度的缺失,在分析气候变化诉讼困境的基础上,提出符合中国国情的气候变化诉讼路径——建立公益诉讼制度,以期为我国低碳社会建设提供一条法律路径。

In recent years, climate change litigation has been on the rise worldwide, and climate justice has become an important way to deal with cli-mate change. In judicial practice, China has seen climate change litigation in a broad sense, among which the most typical is air pollution public interest litigation. Although public interest litigation on air pollution does not directly address climate change-related issues, its outcomes have a signif-icant impact on climate change mitigation and adaptation. Existing climate change legislation is still inadequate because of China’s litigious environment and tradition. In judicial practice, climate change litigation also faces practical difficulties such as unclear plaintiff qualification and difficult to prove causality. In view of the lack of China’s climate change litigation system, this paper proposes a climate change litigation path in accordance with China’s national conditions—the establishment of public interest litigation system, in order to provide a legal path for China’s low-carbon society con-struction.