Climate Change Litigation in Numbers

Climate change litigation has gained an unprecedented growth in importance in the last five years, which high visibility reached by recent judgments such as Milieudefensie v. Shell case. Globally, the cumulative number of climate change-related cases has more than doubled since 2015. Just over 800 cases were filed between 1986 and 2014, while over 1,000 cases have been brought in the last six years. Who are the key players bringing these disputes into court? Who are the other parties who have figured as defendants – e.g., governments, energy companies? How different are the strategic litigation of these cases? And how courts around have decided them so far?

The FSR Insights of October has the honour of hosting the two leading legal scholars to speak about their solid research on climate change litigation from a quantitative perspective: Prof. dr. Michael Gerrard, Andrew Sabin Professor and Director of the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law at Columbia University, and Dr. Joana Setzer, Assistant Professorial Research Fellow at the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment, London School of Economics. Their research centers have gained a worldwide knowing reputation for monitoring all the climate change litigations in numbers and, by doing so, identifying the strengths and weaknesses of the judicialization of the most pressing issue of current times – climate change.

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Hosts

Leonardo Meeus, FSR

Lucila de Almeida, FSR

Keynote speakers

Prof. Michael Gerrard, Andrew Sabin Professor and Director of the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law at Columbia University

Joana Setzer, Assistant Professorial Research Fellow at the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment, London School of Economics

Discussants

Mario Pagano, EUI

Lucila de Almeida, FSR

 Watch the event recording:

References

[1] Joana Setzer and Catherine Higham, Global Trends in Climate Change Litigation: 2021 snapshot, July 2021