Global trends in climate litigation

This event marks the launch of the Grantham Research Institute’s Global Trends in Climate Change Litigation 2026 Snapshot report, an annual report now in its ninth year. The report presents an overview of the expansion, complexity, and maturity in the global field of climate litigation.

We examine the way in which the field continues to expand, encompassing cases in new geographies and cases involving an increasingly diverse array of actors. We also examine the way climate cases can create a “ripple effect” that impacts the activities of both companies and regulators.

We consider the way in which the field has evolved to become more complex as the transition picks up pace, impacting corporate actors, but also communities and ecosystems. We examine the use of litigation that challenges climate policy and climate projects, situating developments in the courts alongside regulatory rollbacks and political backlash.

We identify signs that the field of climate litigation is rapidly maturing. States obligations to act on climate change are increasingly clear. While corporate obligations are less certain, several recent decisions on admissibility can be seen as building blocks towards emergent norms of transnational corporate accountability.