Victims in climate litigation

Alleged victims have often played a central role in litigation aimed at prompting climate change mitigation. Courts have identified such victims in order to grant plaintiffs standing to sue, justify their invocation of individual rights, and consider claims for compensation. However, this article observes, no individual can really be a victim of someone else’s failure to mitigate climate change. This is because, while a climate wrong may certainly harm society, it does not harm specific individuals in a sufficiently direct and proximate way. This observation has major implications for climate litigation, but it is not a fatal flaw: standing, for instance, can often be established on sounder grounds.