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Climate Change & Environment 

Global Perspectives on Corporate Climate Legal Tactics

Our current climate change law project, Global Perspectives on Corporate Climate Legal Tactics, is examining the state of climate litigation against corporations across 17 different jurisdictions. Earlier in the year, national rapporteurs from each of the target legal systems came together at 3 BIICL workshops to share their research and discuss and compare outcomes from the perspective of causes of action, procedures and evidence, and remedies.

The national reports and the workshop findings form the basis of BIICL's comparative analysis of the international state of play of corporate climate litigation. The project will engage in strategic, prospective and interdisciplinary thinking, identifying possible frameworks, arguments, and legal instruments to tackle climate change; it will also help litigation planning, contribute to more comprehensive and effective climate action, raise public awareness and eventually - as a consequence of its deterrent effect - allow and encourage corporate actors to consider their litigation risks and change business behaviour.

The project is led by Dr Ivano Alogna and supported by a Core Group of eminent academics, legal practitioners, judges and scientists.


National Reports

Delighted to announce that our National Reports are now available to download from our Toolbox.


Corporate Climate Litigation Platform

Our CCL Platform is now up and running. The platform has three elements: the CCL Resources library; the Database; the Toolbox

The library consists of publications by our international group of volunteers who are academic, scientific, economic, and legal practice experts in corporate climate litigation. This is a work in progress and is growing daily as more publications are submitted for inclusion.

If you would like to add a publication on corporate climate litigation to our repository of resources, please complete and submit this form.


National Rapporteurs

The Global Perspectives on Corporate Climate Legal Tactics project is comparing the findings of 17 rapporteurs who have researched corporate climate litigation in their legal systems. We have a fantastic team of dedicated academics working on this project to provide the necessary evidence and data for the Toolbox report. Each rapporteur has created a network of experts in the field of climate change:


COP28

On 11 December, Dr Ivano Alogna and Nigel Pleming KC participated in the COP28 official side event, Multi-Stakeholder Action through Corporate Climate Litigation and Intergenerational Climate Justice.

Alongside speakers from the CorporaciĆ³n de Estudios y Desarrollo Norte Grande, the Union of Concerned Scientists and ClientEarth, they discussed tools available to lawyers, academia, indigenous peoples and local communities to facilitate climate action through law, and advocacy for human rights and climate justice.


Publication

We are looking forward to the launch of Climate Change Litigation in Europe: Regional, Comparative and Sectoral Perspectives.

This book addresses the most topical issues related to climate change litigation in Europe. It unpacks the substantive and procedural dimensions of ongoing climate change litigation before domestic and supranational courts and the prospective avenues for future climate change litigation.


Toolbox Conferences and Summits

world map

The Corporate Climate Litigation Toolbox researchers and rapporteurs are working together to plan and organise regional summits in the following locations:

  • Africa - Nairobi
  • Americas - Brasilia
  • Asia - Manila
  • Europe - Paris
  • Oceania - Melbourne

The summits will follow national conferences, organised by the rapporteurs to inform and train local users on how to best implement the research and guidelines presented in the Toolbox.

Keep an eye on this page and our social media channels for more information on all of these events, which will take place from May 2024 onwards.


Publication

The Role of Cultural Heritage in Strengthening Climate Resilience project has led to the publication of the report Intangible Cultural Heritage within the Laws and Policies of South Pacific Small Island States in the Climate Crisis: Towards a More Resilient and Inclusive Approach. The report was writen by the project team,  Kristin Hausler, Alina Holzhausen, Dr Petra Butler and Dr Berenika Drazewska. It was edited by Eva U Wagner and published in the Konrad Adenauer Stiftung's Periscope Special Edition 2023.

To coincide with the publication of the report, the Konrad Adenauer Stiftung (Australia) hosted the webinar Cultural Heritage and Climate Change in the Pacific Region on 13 November 2023, in collaboration with BIICL and the Institute of Small and Micro States (ISMS).


Feature

The work of Dr Alogna and the Australian Rapporteur team was featured in the June 2023 edition of the Australian Pro Bono Centre's publication, Pro Bono Voco, which celebrates the amazing work done by the pro bono community in Australia.


Award

Basel Peace Office

In January 2023 Dr Ivano Alogna took part in the 2023 PACEY Awards ceremony. The project Global Perspectives on Corporate Climate Legal Tactics was selected as one of 3 finalists in the Peace, nuclear Abolition and Climate Engaged Youth (PACEY) Award's European project category.

The Role of Cultural Heritage in Strengthening Climate Resilience

The Role of Cultural Heritage in Strengthening Climate Resilience involved the anaylsis of the laws and policies surrounding cultural heritage, climate change and the environment, and disasters, in Pacific small island states. The research was conducted through a human rights lens and focused on safeguarding Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH) in order to support and strengthen climate change mitigation and adaptation. Existing legal and policy frameworks were examined and assessed and amendments were recommended where existing laws and policies fell short.

The research involved interviews with stakeholder communities in the region. As the Pacific is at the forefront of the fight against climate change, it is hoped that lessons can be learned from the ways their laws and policies have integrated heritage thus far.

The research was conducted by Kristin Hausler, Alina Holzhausen and Dr Berenika Drazewska in collaboration with Professor Petra Butler, Victoria University of Wellington and Director of the Institute of Small and Micro States (ISMS) and BIICL Honorary fellow, and Eva U Wagner, Senior Programme Coordinator Rule of Law and Development Policy, Konrad Adenauer Stiftung (KAS). The final report was published in the Konrad Adenauer Stiftung's Periscope Special Edition 2023.

Climate change is one the most pressing global environmental concerns. BIICL is focusing its environmental law research on this field, by pushing the knowledge boundaries on climate change legislation and litigation, through comparative and international law projects, events, publications and training.

Our recent work has included applied research on: climate change litigation, sustainable consumption issues, human rights due diligence for environmental and climate change impacts, and artificial intelligence and climate change, encompassing work at multiple intersecting levels, going from global to local and from local to global.

Building on its research experience in other areas of international law including, but not limited to, the law of the sea, territory and sovereignty, migration, cultural heritage, energy, trade and investment, business and human rights, international treaty-making, implementation and enforcement, BIICL is providing high quality interdisciplinary research promoting increasingly ambitious law and policy in addressing this defining issue of our time.

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