SLP News archive
2025
13/05/2025 | Legal scholars warn against watering down of corporate climate transition plans
A letter from 31 of Europe's leading legal scholars states that the EU's Omnibus Package is undermining legal certainty and creating litigation risk, and would strike a blow against climate action. Here, Thom Wetzer, Associate Professor of Law and Finance and Director of the Oxford Sustainable Law Programme, who coordinated the letter, explains the implications of the proposed change.
Members of the European Parliament are currently considering the EU Omnibus Package, which aims to reduce compliance complexity and help companies embrace the transition to a sustainable economy.
The letter, coordinated by Wetzer with the support of Nick Young and the Oxford Sustainable Law Programme, focuses on Art 22 of the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD), which originally required that large companies develop and "put into effect" a climate transition plan.
The legal scholars conclude that removing that phrasing - as is currently proposed - would mean that while companies would still be required to have an emission-reduction plan, they would not need to put it into action. As they wrote in the letter, "mere paperwork, instead of good faith action, would suffice in meeting the obligation".
16/04/2025 | "heavy rainfall after a drought, it’s not a relief"
Dr Mireia Ginesta, Research Associate in Climate Damages Analysis, was quoted in a Nature article on Spain's developing climate adaptation plans and the fall out from October 2024's high-altitude isolated depression, or DANA event that caused flash flooding in Valencia, Castilla-La Mancha and Andalusia - 'Spain adapts to new reality as climate crisis hits home'.
"The temperature of the oceans, including the Mediterranean Sea, is rising, which means the air can carry more water vapour,” says Ginesta, “which in turn can increase a storm’s intensity...If you suddenly have heavy rainfall after a drought, it’s not a relief: rainfall in soil that is already dry can produce huge flooding in an area.”
10/03/2025 | Researchers can explore 1700 fossil fuel ads through the Oxford Carbon and Climate Advertising Library
OxCCAL, with over 1700 unique climate-related advertisements from fossil fuel producers, is one of the most comprehensive collections of sustainability-themed ads from the Carbon Majors to date.
It includes ads from ExxonMobil (373 ads), Chevron (247 ads), Shell (566 ads), BP (395 ads), Total (114 ads), ConocoPhillips (9 ads), and the American Petroleum Institute (14 ads).
“OxCCAL is a treasure trove for those interested in greenwashing, climate-related messaging, fossil fuel advertising, or related topics,” says Benjamin Franta, Associate Professor of Climate Litigation. “As one of the largest curated collections of climate-related advertisements in the world, OxCCAL represents an enormous amount of work by a dedicated team of researchers – led by our Research Associate Dr. Juliana Vélez Echeverri – working for over a year to amass and organise this unique dataset and is a significant step forward for global efforts to promote transparency and integrity in the climate communications space.”
OxCCAL was built through the University of Oxford’s subscription to MediaRadar, an advertising intelligence platform. Under the University’s agreement with MediaRadar, OxCCAL is available for research use by academics, nonprofit organizations, government offices, journalists, and various other groups. Research inquiries may be sent to Dr Benjamin Franta at benjamin.franta@smithschool.ox.ac.uk. See the Smith School news page for more details.
06/02/2025 | Social scientists receive Fellowship funding to deepen partnerships beyond academia
Four social sciences projects at the University of Oxford have collectively been awarded £80,000 to develop ground-breaking new non-academic partnerships across the UK and beyond.
This includes our project Bridging the Net Zero Ambition and Implementation Gap through Procurement Policy and Practice, led by Thom Wetzer, Kaya Axelsson, Emma Lecavalier for the Net Zero Policy and Regulation Hub, Smith School for Enterprise and the Environment, School of Geography and the Environment, partnering with incoming Engagement Fellows, Mr Eduardo Spanó, Instituto Jataí, and Ms Agata Meysner, Climate Action Network Europe.
Engagement Fellow Agata Meysnor said: 'This fellowship provides an invaluable opportunity for a collaboration between academia and civil society, focusing on the role of public procurement in driving systemic transformation.' Eduardo Spano said of the Fellowship: 'This collaboration between our organisations will make meaningful progress towards our shared ambitions to embed sustainable governance within public procurement processes, advancing Instituto Jataí's mission to transform public procurement into a powerful tool for innovation and sustainable development in Brazil.'
2024
14/06/2024 | Net Zero Regulation and Policy directors join UN taskforce
The Taskforce on Net Zero Policy, an initiative with the aim of furthering the work of the UN Secretary General’s High Level Expert Group (HLEG) on the Net-Zero Emissions Commitments of Non-State Entities, has today announced the constituents of its Board of Trustees and its Taskforce Expert Group (TEG).
Professors Tom Hale and Thom Wetzer, directors of the Oxford Martin Programme on Net Zero Regulation and Policy, have been appointed to the Taskforce Expert Group. This comes after the establishment of the Net Zero Regulation and Policy Hub earlier this year- a key output of the programme.
17/04/2024 | Climate-washing litigation: towards greater corporate accountability?
With corporate climate action and climate misinformation coming under greater scrutiny, ‘climate-washing’ is increasingly being targeted through climate litigation. Juliana Vélez Echeverri, Catherine Higham and Joana Setzer explore this growing trend, asking: how effective is it to use the courts in this way and how could their power be better harnessed on the path to net zero?
This commentary is co-published with the LSE Business Review and draws on data from the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law’s database of climate litigation. Juliana Vélez Echeverri is a Research Associate in Climate Greenwashing Litigation at the Oxford Sustainable Law Programme.
12/04/2024 | SLP, Smith School and Faculty of Law contribute to landmark climate case
For the first time, the European Court of Human Rights has ruled that weak government climate policies violate fundamental human rights. The case was brought by the KlimaSeniorinnen – a group of 2,400 older Swiss women whose age and gender puts them at greater risk of death due to heatwaves.
Research from a team including members of the Oxford Sustainable Law Programme, hosted jointed by the Oxford Smith School and the Faculty of Law, contributed to the landmark ruling and was cited in the final judgement. It showed the extent to which heat-related deaths can be attributed to human induced-climate change, contributing key science to support the KIimaSeniorinnen case.
26/03/2024 | Andean alarm: climate crisis increases fears of glacial lake flood in Peru
'In 1941, thousands of people died in Huaraz when the natural dam on a lake above the city gave way. Now, melting glaciers are raising the chances of it happening again.' A Guardian report cites Dr Rupert Stuart-Smith's paper in Nature Geoscience.
22/02/2024 | Jojo Mehta and Thom Wetzer on Planetary Health and legal ramifications
Dr Thom Wetzer, Director of the Oxford Sustainable Law Programme, and Jojo Mehta, Stop Ecocide co-founder and Executive Director, delivered the third in the Green Templeton Lecture series 2024. The series this year is on the theme of 'Planetary Health', with this lecture on 'Planetary Health and legal ramifications'. The lecture report is available at the link above. More on the lecture series is available online.
22/01/2024 | Fighting the Fossil Fuel Companies' Voodo Economics: a conversation with Ben Franta
From the Speaking Out of Place podcast: a conversation with Ben Franta about two new articles he has written that add to his growing archive of seminal work on climate change. Ben describes how the fossil fuel industry paid economists to join scientists in denying the true nature of the fossil fuel industry’s destruction of the environment. Economists argued that even if some science were correct, implementing change would be too costly. This became a powerful tool to stall and kill climate change legislation. Ben also talks about how communities have tried to sue fossil fuel companies for damages incurred by such misinformation and disinformation.
2023
23/06/2023 | Top firms sign climate crisis charter
A group of eight large commercial law firms, calling themselves Legal Charter 1.5, have come together to create and sign a charter outlining a set of common principles to reduce greenhouse gas emissions on a timescale that will prevent global warming from rising above 1.5°C.
Dr Thom Wetzer, associate professor of law and finance at the University of Oxford, commented: “The legal profession has the potential to do tremendous good and it can be part of the solution to the climate crisis. That is why the launch of this Legal Charter is such a welcome step forward. It will allow law firms to share expertise with those seeking to improve the current system.”
20/06/2023 | Water, ice, society, and ecosystems in the Hindu Kush Himalaya (HI-WISE) assessment report released
Dr Rupert Stuart-Smith has coauthored a chapter in the newly released report from the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD). This report 'reveals the changes to the glaciers, snow and permafrost of the Hindu Kush Himalayan (HKH) region driven by global warming are “unprecedented and largely irreversible”' and looks at the impacts on society and nature in the region. Full report and press release are online, and this has already been picked up in the media, including by Reuters and CNN.
19/06/2023 | The Climate Science and Law Forum launches to advance strategic climate litigation
Mishcon de Reya has announced that it has partnered with organisations from three leading academic institutions - the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), Imperial College London and the University of Oxford - to launch the Climate Science and Law Forum. Dr Rupert Stuart-Smith commented: "Climate science has a crucial role to play in supporting legal claims for climate accountability. If the full potential of legal action on climate change is to be realised, it is essential that lawyers have access to scientific insight that provides a firm factual basis for claims. We are delighted to contribute to the Forum and look forward to collaborating with our partners to support high-impact climate litigation in the UK and beyond."
06/06/2023 | Thom Wetzer wins the Smith School's inaugural Teaching Excellence Award
Thom Wetzer, Associate Professor of Law and Finance and the Founding Director of the Oxford Sustainable Law Programme, has been announced as the winner of The Smith School's inaugural Teaching Excellence Award. Thom states that he was particularly thrilled to receive the award because it is largely based on feedback from students. Thom's course, taught jointly with Benjamin Franta and Rupert Stuart-Smith from the Oxford Sustainable Law Programme, focuses on the (contested) role of the law in the net zero transition.
Thom noted:
"We are passionate about what we teach and spend significant effort preparing our classes, so it is wonderful to know that students valued the result. Many thanks to the committed, versatile, and outright brilliant students on the MSc in Sustainability, Enterprise and the Environment -- teaching you has been a wonderful experience."
09/03/2023 | Corporate greenwashing: The lawyers are coming
Dr Ben Franta's blog for the European Corporate Governance Institute: "Greenwashing may be one of the greatest emerging legal risks across corporate sectors worldwide. Once a topic of relatively niche concern, the spectre of greenwashing liability continues to grow as more brands seek to portray themselves as climate-friendly and lawyers (and the broader public) get wise to the fact that not all that appears green is what it seems."
16/02/2023 | Are you a climate culprit?
The carbon footprint and calculator were popularized by Big Oil to shift blame for climate change from industry to the individual. Ben Franta on a “micro truth in a macro lie.”
01/02/2023 | An ocean of opportunities? Climate litigation is doing so well it’s now being eyed by investors
Dr Ben Franta is quoted in an article from The Wave on the rise of litigation finance.
17/01/2023 | Thom Wetzer and Sustainable Law Team featured on Al Jazeera Documentary, Earthrise
Associate Professor of Law and Finance, Thom Wetzer, has been featured alongside the Sustainable Law team in a new episode of Al Jazeera’s documentary series, Earthrise.
12/01/2023 | New research reveals the extent of ExxonMobil’s secret knowledge of climate change nearly 50 years ago
Dr Ben Franta quoted on the article on new research published in the journal Science. They found that those projections, produced by ExxonMobil scientists between 1977 and 2003, foresaw with immense accuracy the global heating that was observed in the decades after.
2022
25/11/2022 | Rising to sustainability challenges: building the Oxford Sustainable Law Programme, pdf (p. 22, 23)
The Oxford Sustainable Law Programme (SLP) was conceived to harness the potential of the law as a lever to drive rapid and systemic change that addresses the biggest sustainability challenges of our time.
23/11/2022 | Luca Enriques selected to provide feedback on the review of G20/OECD Principles of Corporate Governance
Professor of Corporate Law, Luca Enriques, was one of four academics selected by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s (OECD) Corporate Governance Committee to provide feedback on the review of the G20/OECD Principles of Corporate Governance.