SLP News archive
2025
19/09/2025 | Publications September 2025
Kumaresan, K. H., & Franta, B. (2025). Opportunities for corporate climate litigation in Southeast Asia. Asia Pacific Journal of Environmental Law, 28(1), 87-114. Retrieved Sep 19, 2025, from https://doi.org/10.4337/apjel.2025.01.04
Abstract:
Southeast Asia ranks high amongst regions most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. This article explores novel opportunities for corporate climate litigation in the region, focusing on Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore. While climate litigation in the region is relatively nascent, emerging and oftentimes underused legal frameworks present powerful avenues for accountability. The article examines accountability for various climate-related wrongdoings, such as greenwashing and mass deforestation, through the lens of consumer protection law, tort law and constitutional law. It also analyses the utility of specific environmental legislation, such as Indonesia’s Environmental Protection and Management Act and Singapore’s Transboundary Haze Pollution Act, so as to advance climate accountability. Through this analysis, the potential is highlighted for these legal tools to assist in addressing corporate contributions to climate change, and barriers and opportunities for strategic litigation are identified, with the view of guiding future legal and policy developments in the region.
17/09/2025 | Publications September 2025
Carlson, C.J., Mitchell, D., Gibb, R. et al. Health losses attributed to anthropogenic climate change. Nat. Clim. Chang. (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-025-02399-7
Rupert Stuart-Smith writes: "Published today in Nature Climate Change - a short review of what the research community has quantified with respect to the health impacts of climate change already occurring. The answer, so far, is that we have only assessed a small fraction of the overall impacts of climate change, but this small sample already shows dramatic health burdens, including tens of thousands of deaths annually. Health impact attribution research has so far only focused on a limited range of impacts and has geographically more uneven coverage than studies attributing physical hazards to climate change. With some notable exceptions, most health outcomes that are likely worsened substantially by climate change (such as those caused by vector-borne and water-borne diseases) haven't yet been assessed from an attribution perspective due to limits in methods, data, or the lack of research focus on the topic until the past few years. We now have the scientific tools to expand what we know about the health impacts of climate change. At the Oxford Sustainable Law Programme we are working apace to shed light on the true nature of the impacts of climate change and address the gaps in knowledge that still exist."
Abstract:
Over the last decade, attribution science has shown that climate change is responsible for substantial death, disability and illness. However, health impact attribution studies have focused disproportionately on populations in high-income countries, and have mostly quantified the health outcomes of heat and extreme weather. A clearer picture of the global burden of climate change could encourage policymakers to treat the climate crisis like a public health emergency.
10/09/2025 | Publications September 2025
Stuart-Smith, R.F., Vicedo-Cabrera, A.M., Li, S. et al. Refining methods for attributing health impacts to climate change: a heat-mortality case study in Zürich. Climatic Change 178, 165 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10584-025-04011-5
Abstract:
Heat-related deaths occur throughout the summer months, peak during heatwaves, and are affected by temperature and exposed populations’ sensitivities to meteorological conditions. Previous studies found that climate change is increasing heat-related mortality worldwide. We build on existing epidemiological methods to shed light on the adverse effects of climate change on human health. We address limitations in existing methods and apply refined approaches to assess heat mortality attributable to human-induced climate change in Zürich, Switzerland, over 50 years (1969–2018) including a case study of summer 2018. Our methodological refinements affect how counterfactual climate scenarios are derived, and facilitate accounting for changing vulnerability, and assessing impacts during and outside heatwaves. We find nearly 1,700 heat-related deaths attributable to human-induced climate change between 1969 and 2018. Declining vulnerability to heat avoided at least 700 heat-related deaths. The approach described here could be applied elsewhere to quantify the effect of climate change on other health outcomes.
23/07/2025 | Publications July 2025
Ebi, K., Haines, A., Andrade, R. F. S., Åström, C., Barreto, M. L., Bonell, A., Brink, N., Caminade, C., Carlson, C. J., Carter, R., Chua, P., Cissé, G., Colón-González, F. J., Dasgupta, S., Galvao, L. A., Garrido Zornoza, M., Gasparrini, A., Gordon-Strachan, G., Hajat, S., Harper, S., Harrington, L.J., Hashizume, M., Hess, J., Hilly, J., Ingole, V., Jacobson, L.V., Kapwata,T., Keeler, C., Kidd, S.A., Kimani-Murage, E. W., Kolli, R. K., Kovats, S., Li, S., Lowe, R., Mitchell, D., Murray, K., New, M., Ogunniyi, O.E., Perkins-Kirkpatrick, S. E., Pescarini, J., Pineda Restrepo, B. L., Pinho, S. T. R., Prescott, V. Redvers, N., Ryan, S., Santer, B., Schleussner, C.-F., Semenza, J. C., Taylor, M., Temple, L., Thiam, S., Thiery, W., Tompkins, A. M., Undorf, S., Vicedo-Cabrera, A. M., Wan, K., Warren, R., Webster, C., Woodward, A., Wright, C., Stuart-Smith, R. F. (2025) The attribution of human health outcomes to climate change: a transdisciplinary guidance document. Climatic Change https://doi.org/10.1007/s10584-025-03976-7
This was the product of a Wellcome Trust supported project co-led by Kris Ebi, Andy Haines and Rupert Stuart-Smith that brought together key academics working on climate change attribution and health modelling.
Abstract:
For over 30 years, detection and attribution (D&A) studies have informed key conclusions in international and national assessments of climate science, providing compelling evidence for the reality and seriousness of anthropogenic effects on the global climate. In the early twenty-first century, D&A methods were adapted to assess the contribution of climate change to longer-term trends in earth system processes and extreme weather events. More recently, attribution research quantified the health and economic impacts of climate change. Here we provide practical guidance to inform transdisciplinary collaboration among health, climate, and other relevant scientific disciplines and interested parties in designing, conducting, interpreting, and reporting robust and policy-relevant attribution analyses of human health outcomes. This guidance resulted from discussions among experts in health and climate science. Recommended steps include co-developing the research questions across disciplines; establishing a transdisciplinary analytic team with fundamental grounding in the core disciplines; engaging meaningfully with relevant interested parties and decision-makers to define an appropriate study design and analytic process, including defining the exposure event or trend; identifying, visualizing, and describing linkages in the causal pathway from exposure to weather/climate variables to the health outcome(s) of interest; choosing appropriate counterfactual climate data, and where applicable, to evaluate the skill of the climate and health impact model(s) used in D&A research; quantifying the attributable changes in climate variables; quantifying the attributable health impacts within the context of other determinants of exposure and vulnerability; and reporting key results, including a description of how recommendations were incorporated into the analytical plan. Implementation of guidance would benefit diverse interested parties including researchers, research funders, policymakers, and climate litigation by harmonizing methods and increasing confidence in findings.
14/07/2025 | Publications July 2025
Stuart-Smith, R. F., White, E., Prütz, R., Rogelj, J., Wetzer, T., Wood, M., & Rajamani, L. (2025). Implications of states’ dependence on carbon dioxide removal for achieving the Paris temperature goal. Climate Policy, 1–16. https://doi.org/10.1080/14693062.2025.2528775
Achieving the Paris Agreement’s long-term temperature goal of limiting global warming well below 2°C while pursuing efforts to limit it to 1.5°C requires rapid and sustained reductions in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and CO2 to be withdrawn from the atmosphere and safely stored. However, pathways consistent with the Paris long-term temperature goal span a wide range of emission reductions in coming years: the IPCC indicates 34–60% cuts in GHG emissions between 2019 and 2030. This range is a major source of policy uncertainty. A key determinant of the rate at which emissions must be reduced this decade is the extent to which CO2 removal (CDR) is relied on later to withdraw emissions from the atmosphere. Here, we evaluate the dependence on CDR of 71 states, primarily in their near and long-term climate strategies submitted to the UNFCCC by May 2024, and the associated risks. Our analysis finds substantial ambiguities in how states plan to meet their climate targets. A feature of this ambiguity is that states expect to rely heavily on novel and conventional CDR options to meet their climate goals, and in some cases, rely on removals delivered in other states’ territories. Pathways that overshoot 1.5°C and use CDR to remove emissions produced in excess of the 1.5°C-aligned carbon budget will result in more severe climate change impacts and higher risks of crossing planetary tipping points. Moreover, states’ disclosed reliance on CDR is highly exposed to risks to its delivery, and non-delivery of planned CDR would raise global temperatures further, worsening impacts of climate change. Our findings provide a basis for enhanced scrutiny of states’ targets. The risks associated with heavy reliance on CDR to meet climate goals indicate that states should prioritize pathways that minimize overshoot and the reliance on CDR to reach net-zero CO2 emissions.
18/06/2025 | Sounding the alarm over the EU’s sustainability rules rollback
Thom Wetzer is quoted in Fortune Europe, as one of over 30 legal scholars putting their names to a letter to the EC warning of the risks that weakening corporate accountability regulations will pose for companies.
"The members of the European Parliament shouldn’t be fooled into thinking that if they remove this article that that’s going to somehow amount to a reduction in regulatory burden. What will come in its place is a very litigious landscape and differential implementation of national requirements. You will have replaced a nicely uniform obligation with a patchwork of a variety of different and uncertain obligations.”
05/06/2025 | New publications
We're very pleased to share two excellent new publications led by SLP authors.
Gebrechorkos, S. H., Sheffield, J., Vicente-Serrano, S. M., Funk, C., Miralles, D. G., Peng, J., Dyer, E., Talib, J., Beck, H. E., Singer, M. B., & Dadson, S. J. (2025). Warming accelerates global drought severity. Nature, 1–8. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-025-09047-2
Drought is one of the most common and complex natural hazards affecting the environment, economies and populations globally. However, there are significant uncertainties in global drought trends, and a limited understanding of the extent to which a key driver, atmospheric evaporative demand (AED), impacts the recent evolution of the magnitude, frequency, duration and areal extent of droughts. Here, by developing an ensemble of high-resolution global drought datasets for 1901–2022, we find an increasing trend in drought severity worldwide. Our findings suggest that AED has increased drought severity by an average of 40% globally. Not only are typically dry regions becoming drier but also wet areas are experiencing drying trends. During the past 5 years (2018–2022), the areas in drought have expanded by 74% on average compared with 1981–2017, with AED contributing to 58% of this increase. The year 2022 was record-breaking, with 30% of the global land area affected by moderate and extreme droughts, 42% of which was attributed to increased AED. Our findings indicate that AED has an increasingly important role in driving severe droughts and that this tendency will likely continue under future warming scenarios.
Gupta, B. (2025). Talking the talk vs. walking the walk: greening of central banks’ speeches and policies. Climate and Development, 1–20. https://doi.org/10.1080/17565529.2025.2500464
The enormity of risks posed by climate change to financial stability have led many central banks to consider including its impacts to varying degrees in their operations and policymaking. Although the implementation of these policies is at a nascent stage, there is a vibrant discourse surrounding central banks’ appropriate role in undertaking climate-related policies. In this context, this paper aims to develop a ‘green index’ which quantifies the frequency of occurrences of climate change and green finance-related words in a dataset of all central bankers’ speeches from 2000 to 2021. It further explores whether central banks that are more active in delivering speeches on climate-related issues are also more likely to implement financial and regulatory policies aimed at mitigating climate-related risks to financial stability. Focusing only on early implementers of green financial and regulatory policies and examining the timing of green speeches vs policy implementation, I find speeches and policies to be highly correlated; although most central banks’ speeches on climate risks come after they have implemented these policies. These results are somewhat consistent with previous studies in this area which have found that central banks walking the walk on climate policies are different from those talking the talk.
22/05/2025 | New publication
Ebi, K. L., Hess, J. J., Stuart-Smith, R. F., Vicedo-Cabrera, A. M., Woodward, A., & Haines, A. (2025). Considerations for improving the relevance, use, and robustness of projections of the health risks of climate change. The Lancet Planetary Health, 9(5), e442–e447. https://doi.org/10.1016/S2542-5196(25)00089-0
The increased interest and investment in climate change and health research and policy should be a turning point for providing policy-relevant projections of how changing weather patterns and climate trends could alter the magnitude and distribution of climate-sensitive health outcomes. Decision makers recognise that future health burdens result from interactions between exposure, sensitivity, and the capacity to adapt. Fit-for-purpose projections to inform climate risk management should be based on a range of scenarios of greenhouse gas emissions and socioeconomic development. The relevance, use, and robustness of projections would be improved by addressing the considerations outlined here.
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
21/10/2024 | SLP team members, selected publications August - October
Schuldt NJ, Stuart-Smith RF, Wetzer T (2024) Strategies for navigating competing climate science in human rights courts. PLOS Clim 3(8): e0000462. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pclm.0000462
Climate science constitutes an essential evidentiary basis for judges’ decision-making in climate change litigation. It has assisted courts in identifying victims, determining guard rails for states’ legal obligations to mitigate and adapt to climate change, and prescribing remedies when states have failed to meet their legal obligations [1]. States’ duties to prevent climate change impacts are also hotly debated in human rights courts (‘HRCs’). These novel legal claims give rise to particular challenges as HRCs must interpret (uncontested) scientific evidence and, more demandingly, ‘referee a “battle of the experts”‘ [2] when presented with competing scientific claims. This task may require adapted fact-finding strategies [2–4], for which the approaches of domestic and other international courts could provide inspiration.
Perkins-Kirkpatrick, S. E., Alexander, L. v., King, A. D., Kew, S. F., Philip, S. Y., Barnes, C., Maraun, D., Stuart-Smith, R. F., Jézéquel, A., Bevacqua, E., Burgess, S., Fischer, E., Hegerl, G. C., Kimutai, J., Koren, G., Lawal, K. A., Min, S.-K., New, M., Odoulami, R. C., … Zscheischler, J. (2024). Frontiers in attributing climate extremes and associated impacts. Frontiers in Climate, 6. https://doi.org/10.3389/fclim.2024.1455023
The field of extreme event attribution (EEA) has rapidly developed over the last two decades. Various methods have been developed and implemented, physical modelling capabilities have generally improved, the field of impact attribution has emerged, and assessments serve as a popular communication tool for conveying how climate change is influencing weather and climate events in the lived experience. However, a number of non-trivial challenges still remain that must be addressed by the community to secure further advancement of the field whilst ensuring scientific rigour and the appropriate use of attribution findings by stakeholders and associated applications. As part of a concept series commissioned by the World Climate Research Programme, this article discusses contemporary developments and challenges over six key domains relevant to EEA, and provides recommendations of where focus in the EEA field should be concentrated over the coming decade. These six domains are: (1) observations in the context of EEA; (2) extreme event definitions; (3) statistical methods; (4) physical modelling methods; (5) impact attribution; and (6) communication. Broadly, recommendations call for increased EEA assessments and capacity building, particularly for more vulnerable regions; contemporary guidelines for assessing the suitability of physical climate models; establishing best-practice methodologies for EEA on compound and record-shattering extremes; co-ordinated interdisciplinary engagement to develop scaffolding for impact attribution assessments and their suitability for use in broader applications; and increased and ongoing investment in EEA communication. To address these recommendations requires significant developments in multiple fields that either underpin (e.g., observations and monitoring; climate modelling) or are closely related to (e.g., compound and record-shattering events; climate impacts) EEA, as well as working consistently with experts outside of attribution and climate science more generally. However, if approached with investment, dedication, and coordination, tackling these challenges over the next decade will ensure robust EEA analysis, with tangible benefits to the broader global community.
Jézéquel, A., … Stuart-Smith, R.F., van Loon, A.F. (2024) Broadening the scope of anthropogenic influence in extreme event attribution. Environmental Research: Climate 3(4). https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/2752-5295/ad7527/meta
As extreme event attribution (EEA) matures, explaining the impacts of extreme events has risen to be a key focus for attribution scientists. Studies of this type usually assess the contribution of anthropogenic climate change to observed impacts. Other scientific communities have developed tools to assess how human activities influence impacts of extreme weather events on ecosystems and societies. For example, the disaster risk reduction (DRR) community analyses how the structure of human societies affects exposure, vulnerability, and ultimately the impacts of extreme weather events, with less attention to the role of anthropogenic climate change. In this perspective, we argue that adapting current practice in EEA to also consider other causal factors in attribution of extreme weather impacts would provide richer and more comprehensive insight into the causes of disasters. To this end, we propose a framework for EEA that would generate a more complete picture of human influences on impacts and bridge the gap between the EEA and DRR communities. We provide illustrations for five case studies: the 2021–2022 Kenyan drought; the 2013–2015 marine heatwave in the northeast Pacific; the 2017 forest fires in Portugal; Acqua Alta (flooding) events in Venice and evaluation of the efficiency of the Experimental Electromechanical Module, an ensemble of mobile barriers that can be activated to mitigate the influx of seawater in the city; and California droughts and the Forecast Informed Reservoir Operations system as an adaptation strategy.
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.