Defining ecocide as a legal tool to fight the climate crisis | with Pia Björstrand, #lawyersforfuture

In light of the climate crisis, legal action has become an
important pathway to act, next to political action, practical
action and civil disobedience. Courts in several countries have
already taken groundbreaking decisions and forced governments to
take more effective action.


However, legal experts have realised that the current legal
definitions of public goods, goals and of criminal offences are
not sufficient to act against the climate crisis. Therefore there
is a growing movement which aims at defining ecocide as a
separate criminal offence, which means the destruction of the
ecological basis of life on earth.


We talk with the Swedish lawyer Pia Björstrand who is a founder
of #lawyersforfuture and holds positions in several environmental
and climate groups. Pia has been instrumental in bringing the
discussion about ecocide to the public and to provide the legal
basis for the definition. Which steps are necessary to define
ecocide, will it be implemented on the national or international
level and what would be the concrete impact on the fight against
climate change?