Oxford Sustainable Finance Summit 2022 – Climate litigation and liability session

Litigation has the potential to help drive the transition to a net zero economy by holding corporations and financial entities to their net zero transition plans, and to re-allocate capital where liability risks are priced into financial decision-making. Yet the risks, opportunities and impacts of climate litigation are not widely understood by financial market participants, regulators and academics alike. In this session, we explored the role of law and litigation in holding companies and financial institutions to account for a failure to prepare, disclose or implement net zero transition plans. What role can and should investors and financial institutions play to support litigation to align corporate and financial decision-making with climate goals? How can litigation risk be factored into financial decision-making? What are the implications for efforts by financial institutions, investors, credit rating agencies and prudential regulators looking to use this analysis in financial decision-making and capital regulation?

This session starts with a fireside chat between Linus Steinmetz, Strategy, International Affairs and Fundraising, Fridays for Future DE, and Ellie Mulholland, Director of the CCLI. Linus Steinmetz explains how he, along with other youth litigants and NGOs, successfully sued the German government and challenged their climate targets.

Following the fireside chat, Sarah Barker, Partner, Head of Climate Risk Governance, MinterEllison, Javier Solana, Senior Lecturer, University of Glasgow, Catherine Higham, Climate Change Laws of the World Coordinator, Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change & the Environment, Vesselina Haralampieva, Senior Counsel, European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, and John Firth, Senior Director, Climate & Resilience Hub, Willis Towers Watson, discuss the risks, opportunities and impacts of climate litigation in this insightful panel moderated by Thom Wetzer, Founding Director, Oxford Sustainable Law Programme.