Abstract

This chapter turns to the question: who are the people mobilizing the law in Global South jurisdictions to strengthen climate change policy responses and halt emissions-intensive projects? The chapter provides an analytical overview of the constellation of key actors and their roles in enabling the emergence of climate change litigation in the Global South. These actors include environmental non-governmental organizations (NGOs), regulatory agencies, local and Indigenous communities, climate change activists, environmental cause lawyers located inside and outside NGOs, and funders. This broad range of actors reflects the growing complexity, polycentricity, and multi-level nature of the climate change litigation space, and climate change governance more broadly. Stepping back from the granular analysis of specific groups of actors, the chapter advances a theoretical framework in relation to the different, prototypical modes of legal action in the Global South and how they are shaped by particular actors.