Climate change battles are increasingly being fought, and won, in court | Tessa Kahn

Around the world courts are stepping in when politicians fail to act, with South Africa's government the latest to lose a groundbreaking climate lawsuit with judges ruling against its plans for a new coal-fired power station

The South African government has lost the country's first climate change lawsuit after the hight court ruled against its plans for a coal-fired power station, the latest in a rising tide of international climate litigation.

Environmental NGO EarthLife Africa challenged the government's approval of the proposed Thabametsi coal-fired power station on the grounds that it should have been preceded by an evaluation of its climate change impacts. The North Gauteng high court agreed and ordered the government to reconsider its approval, taking into account a full climate change impact assessment.