Emerging Trends in Addressing Climate Change through Litigation in Tanzania

Climate change litigation (climate litigation) has increased worldwide partly due to governments enacting laws to comply with global climate change agreements, as well as courts playing a pivotal role in developing related precedents. By analysing Tanzania’s climate litigation in the context of worldwide trends, one may observe that the courts have addressed critical aspects of climate litigation, although their doing so has not been fully acknowledged in some of the contemporary literature. Also, unlike in other jurisdictions, the courts in Tanzania have not referred to numerous instructive precedents. This shortcoming may be attributed partly to the lack of a comprehensive climate change law, the legal impediments to instituting public interest litigation, and a general lack of enthusiasm for researching and probing current court precedents on the part of counsel and the judiciary. This commentary advocates enacting comprehensive climate change legislation and enhancing the capacity of civil society, non-governmental organizations, the Bar, and the judiciary to engage with contemporary developments in climate change impacts and related litigation.