The plastic pollution crisis that overwhelms our oceans is also a significant and growing threat to the Earth’s climate. At current levels, greenhouse gas...

Despite being one of the most pervasive materials on the planet, plastic and its impact on human health remain poorly understood. Yet exposure to...

For communities around the world whose lives have become worse, not better, from the World Bank’s more than $52 billion in annual lending, the...

In the northwest Amazon lies the Peruvian state of Loreto, home to one of the most biodiverse areas on Earth.  Loreto is also home...

The WTO Brazil-Retreaded Tires case began when the European Commission (EC), a net exporter of used tires, challenged Brazil’s ban on the importation of...

While US coal consumption has declined over the past 10 years, US coal exports have increased. The range of impacts on local communities and...

In 1999, Methanex initiated a lawsuit against the United States when California legislatures ordered a ban on MTBE by 2002 because of concerns over...

In 1993, the creation of the World Bank Inspection Panel – the first independent accountability mechanism – marked a pivotal moment in development finance...

In 1997, the World Bank pledged to invest $400 million in the National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) for its Power Generation Project in India....

Shipbreaking is a highly-polluting manner of recycling parts from end-of-life ships by a technique known as “beaching,” wherein workers drive ships onto sandy beaches...

Advocates from around the world implored the World Bank use caution around its investment in the Chad/Cameroon Pipeline Project when reports surfaced of state-sponsored...

Given the impact many World Trade Organization (WTO) decisions have on people’s health and the environment, CIEL has long advocated for more transparent mechanisms...

Across Central America, an epidemic of Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD) – a disease for which progression is inevitable, and ultimately fatal, without early access...

The communities in San Mateo de Huanchor, Peru, have been fighting to protect their health and environment from the disastrous effects of mining operations...

Only relatively recently has serious global attention been paid to the many dangerous effects exposure to mercury can have on human and environmental health....

My Guide, A Community Resource Guide to REDD+ Rights is a community-ready reference material created by CIEL as a part of our overarching mission...

CIEL’s groundbreaking website ForestDefender.org is an interactive online legal database containing a wealth of easy-to-access information aimed at safeguarding forests and sustainable livelihoods in...

SAVE Lamu, a consortium of local organizations on the Kenyan coast, appealed to the High Court of Kenya in a case asserting that the...

On March 19, 1997, a request for investigation was filed at the World Bank by 121 individuals and Pólo Sindical do Submédio São Francisco,...

Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZ) are areas of the sea, generally extending 200 nautical miles from a country’s coastline, that are reserved to the respective...

In the Arctic, ice is a central element of culture and survival; the indigenous Inuit people rely on being able to traverse enormous ice...

In March 1999, CIEL filed a legal challenge against a US patent claimed on the “ayahuasca” vine, Banisteriopsis caapi, which is native to the...

Early in the 1990s, Spanish electric utility company Endesa began to plan and implement the BíoBío Hydroelectric Dam project, which would include the construction...

The China Western Poverty Reduction Project involved the resettlement of 58,000 Han Chinese farmers into Qinghai Province, an area that was traditionally considered to...

In 1979, the World Bank and the Inter-American Development Bank began distributing funds to Entidad Binacional Yacyretá (EBY), a joint creation of the governments...

The World Trade Organization is responsible for administering the rules of the international trade system and for resolving trade disputes that may arise between...