Global trends in climate litigation: Launch of the 2024 Snapshot Report

Sheikh Zayed Theatre, Cheng Kin Ku Building
Hybrid Mobilising Whole of Society Climate Action Open entry Flagship Events Law

About this Event

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 inaction 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. However, 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 will be chaired by Prof. Carmen Nuzzo, Executive Director of the TPI Center, and will begin with a short presentation from authors Joana Setzer and Catherine Higham on the findings of the Grantham Research Institute’s 2023 Global Trends in Climate Change Litigation Policy Report. A panel of experts in climate change law will then provide reflections on the report.