Global trends in climate litigation 2024 - report launch - video

This event marked the launch of the Grantham Research Institute’s 2024 Global Trends in Climate Change Litigation Policy Report.

The growth rate of new climate cases may be starting to stabilise (at more than 200 new cases per year). However litigants continue to develop new types of cases and legal arguments, and we continue to see significant transnational exchange between countries. Activist groups and civil society organisations remain a major driving force behind the adoption of climate litigation as a tool to influence climate governance, with human rights arguments continuing to play a central role in cases seeking to hold governments and companies to account for failing to act on climate. In 2023 we also saw major developments in climate litigation involving forests and biodiversity, with new cases concerning the use of forest land grabs for carbon offsetting and others challenging the impacts of new ‘clean’ energy projects on biodiversity. Not all climate cases are filed to advance climate action, and 2023 also saw significant challenges to new climate policy and legislation filed by a range of stakeholders. This phenomenon risks exacerbating a widening gulf between what is expected of investors in the US and elsewhere particularly in Europe.

The event was chaired by Dr. Carmen Nuzzo, Executive Director of the TPI Center, and will began with a short presentation from authors Joana Setzer and Catherine Higham on the findings of the Grantham Research Institute’s 2024 Global Trends in Climate Change Litigation Policy Report. A panel of experts in climate change law then provided reflections on the report.

Meet our speakers and chair

Speakers:

Catherine Higham (@CatherineHigha3) is Policy Fellow at the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment and coordinates the Climate Change Laws of the World Project. She is a co-author of the report.

Joana Setzer (@JoanaSetzer) is Associate Professorial Research Fellow at the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment and leads the Climate Change Laws of the World project. She is a co-author of the report.

Harro van Asselt (@harrovanasselt) is Hatton Professor of Climate Law at the University of Cambridge and Law Fellow at Hughes Hall. He is also Professor of Climate Law and Policy at the University of Eastern Finland Law School, and an affiliated researcher with the Stockholm Environment Institute.

Cynthia Hanawalt is the Director of the Sabin Center’s financial regulation practice. Her work supports regulatory and policy responses to climate-related financial risk at the federal and state level and includes a focus on the complex intersections of ESG and antitrust law with sustainability goals and climate resiliency measures.

Wandisa Phama, Executive Director of the Centre for Environmental Rights, has over a decade of experience working in South Africa’s Public Interest Law, focusing on community advocacy, human rights, and defending activists.

Zaneta Sedilikova is Director of climate and biodiversity risk consultancy firm Planet Law Lab and a Biodiversity Risk Advisor at the Commonwealth Climate and Law Initiative, where she carries out research and provides strategic advice on how biodiversity loss can pose a material risk to financial institutions and corporations.

Chair:

Carmen Nuzzo is Professor in Practice at the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment and the Executive Director of the Transition Pathway Initiative Centre (TPI Centre).