Climate science in the courtroom

Hosted in partnership with Legal Voices for the Future.

Since the first climate litigation cases were brought in the 1980s, the field has evolved at pace. Cases are now being filed against an increasingly diverse range of public and private actors, with courts relying on scientific evidence to adjudicate questions of responsibility for climate change and its impacts. 

Join us to explore how rapidly evolving climate science is being used in climate litigation. 

Presentation

This Legal Voices for the Future Knowledge Session will feature experts from the LSE and Imperial Grantham Research Institutes, Emily Theokritoff (Research Associate in Climate Damage Attribution at the Grantham Institute of Imperial College London), Jameela Joy Reyes (Policy Officer at the LSE’s Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment), and Nicholas Petkov (Research Assistant at the LSE’s Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment), who will present their findings from a new Grantham report series on scientific evidence and corporate accountability in climate litigation. 

The speakers will provide an overview of the role of scientific evidence in climate litigation, focusing in particular on attribution science and its growing use in “polluter pays” litigation. In ‘polluter pays’ litigation, claimants must establish a causal relationship between a defendant’s greenhouse gas emissions and a specific incidence of past or future harm. They will then explain how evidence is used to establish linkages between greenhouse gas emissions and climate-related harms, while exploring key legal concepts such as causation and standards of proof.

Creative content: Debating the science

After the presentation, participants will break out into groups to discuss how climate science can be used in legal cases. Participants will then debate a series of questions, provided by our speakers during the breakout session. No advanced preparation is required!

How to join

Register in advance here to join this event in person or online