Climate Change Litigation - Where Next & Lessons Learnt

Introduction

Climate litigation is a novel and constantly evolving area. The past year has seen several key cases litigated and decided at the international and regional levels (the requests for advisory opinions before ITLOS, the IACHR and the ICJ, and the decision in Verein KlimaSeniorinnen) as well as significant developments in domestic litigation (the Court of Appeal’s ruling in Milieudefensie v Shell in the Netherlands, the Finch decision in the UK, etc.). Further, a first instance judgment in Lliuya v RWE is expected as early as in March 2025. Finally, this year has seen the first claims being filed against so called ‘facilitators’, i.e., professional service providers like ad agencies and lawyers (OECD Complaint against WPP, Greenpeace claim against a law firm).

This virtual classroom seminar will delve into these developments, query what may come next in the field of climate litigation and prompt participants to consider the likely consequences of these developments. The live session will be useful for lawyers and other professional service providers who either litigate in the climate/environmental field or who advise corporations on ESG matters, and particularly transition and litigation risk.

What You Will Learn

This live and interactive course will cover the following:

• The relevance of advisory opinions issued by international and regional courts
• How are recent developments in human rights law expected to influence domestic litigation on climate-related issues in both the mitigation and adaptation contexts?
• What relevance do they have to litigation against corporate actors?
• Climate damages
• Professional service providers
• Finch and Scope 3
• Parent liability and the concept of control
• Where next and lessons learnt

Recording of live sessions: Soon after the Learn Live session has taken place you will be able to go back and access the recording - should you wish to revisit the material discussed.