“Courts as spaces of resistance against the offset industry”, 19 March 2025

As governments and corporations in the Global North sidestep climate commitments, courts in the Global South are stepping up. Recent landmark victories in Kenya, Peru, and Colombia have exposed the flaws of carbon offsets and their human rights impacts, proving that litigation can be a powerful force for social change.

Legal victories against carbon offset projects in Kenya, Peru, and Colombia

1. While the European Commission pushes to weaken corporate due diligence laws, these legal victories demonstrate the growing role of the judiciary in fighting corporate impunity and ensuring access to justice for affected communities.

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Exposing the lies: anti-greenwashing litigation as a growing legal front

Courts are also increasingly becoming spaces for resistance against misleading climate claims. …

Some examples include:

• Delta Airlines, … is … facing a greenwashing lawsuit in the U.S. over allegedly making misleading claims about being carbon neutral. …
• A court in The Netherlands ruled in 2024 that airline KLM falsely advertised carbon offsetting as a legitimate way to achieve climate neutrality. …
• In California, a newly filed greenwashing lawsuit alleges that Apple falsely marketed certain Apple Watch models as “carbon neutral.” The plaintiffs claim that the two offset projects … fail to prove additionality – meaning the claimed emission reductions would have happened regardless of the offset projects. …

… Brazil is seeing its first greenwashing lawsuit , filed by the Institute for Consumer Protection (IDEC) against Gol Airlines and Localiza (a car rental company). The case challenges allegedly misleading carbon offset claims and raises more critical questions about the legitimacy of offset programs. …

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Harnessing litigation for climate justice around the globe

These legal victories … are shaping global climate accountability beyond their respective countries. They show that Global South courts are taking the lead in hearing the grievances of Indigenous and local communities on carbon offset projects. These cases also pave the way for the judicial system to help redefine corporate accountability and ensure that courts prioritise human rights over profit-driven climate schemes.

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