Corporate Accountability and Liability Mechanisms for Climate Change: Developments and Comparative Models

Event Details

The question as to how companies should be addressing their impacts on climate change has never been as urgent. The recent decision in the Netherlands in Milieudefensie v Shell is another example of legal and societal expectations that companies should take proactive steps towards reducing and even eliminating their contributions to the various factors that fuel climate change. These concerns have not only surfaced in litigation around the world, but also in other methods of holding companies accountable, such as through investor pressure, public procurement, financial decisions, and reputation-focused campaigns by civil society. Many of these accountability models have legal implications for companies although they do not necessarily provide for legal liability or access to remedy for people and the planet.

In this morning's online panel discussion, speakers will examine the different models of corporate accountability and liability for climate change impacts. Speakers will discuss examples of corporate accountability and liability mechanisms for climate change, and consider the framework of accountability mechanisms that extend beyond litigation. The concepts of 'accountability' and 'liability' will be considered, and how they relate to remedy, as well as the practical implications of what is expected of companies and how accountability mechanisms relate to the concept of a 'just transition'.

Event convened by Ivano Alogna, Arthur Watts Research Fellow in Environmental and Climate Change Law; Lise Smit, Senior Research Fellow in Business and Human Rights and Director, Human Rights Due Diligence Forum; and Duncan Fairgrieve, Senior Research Fellow in Comparative Law and Director, Product Liability Forum.

 
Join the conversation @BIICL #CorporateAccountability #ClimateChangeImpacts
  

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Speakers:

• Mads Andenas QC, Professor, University of Oslo and Institute of Legal Studies, School of Advanced Study, University of London
• Lydia Omuko-Jung, Research Fellow, Institute of Public Law and Political Science at University of Graz
• Catherine Higham, Climate Change Laws of the World Coordinator, Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment
• Francesco Quarta, Associate Professor, Department of Sociology and Business Law, University of Bologna
• Ina Ebert, Leading Expert Liability and Insurance Law, Munich Re
• Lisa Benjamin, Assistant Professor, Lewis & Clark Law School, Portland, Oregon
• Arianne Griffith, Senior Campaigner, Global Witness
  

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