Dr Benjamin Franta

Senior Research Fellow in Climate Litigation

Profile

Dr Benjamin Franta is a Senior Research Fellow in Climate Litigation at the Oxford Sustainable Law Programme and the founding head of the Climate Litigation Lab.

His research focuses on applying rigorous methods to practical challenges presented by climate litigation worldwide and has been published in Nature Climate Change, Global Environmental Change, The Guardian, and more, translated into 10 languages, and cited in the US Congressional Record.

Dr Franta holds a PhD in Applied Physics from Harvard University, a separate PhD in History (History of Science) from Stanford University, a JD from Stanford Law School, an MSc in Archaeological Science from the University of Oxford, and a BA in Physics and Mathematics from Coe College in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. He is also a licensed attorney and a member of the State Bar of California.

Publications

Journal (16)

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Hale T, Wetzer T, Abebe S, and others, ‘Regulating Net Zero: From Groundswell to Ground Rules’ (2024) 14 Nature Climate Change 306

Wentz J, Merner D, Franta B, and others, ‘Research Priorities for Climate Litigation’ (2022) 11 Earth’s Future

Wentz J and Franta B, ‘Liability for Public Deception: Linking Fossil Fuel Disinformation to Climate Damages’ (2022) 52 Environmental Law Reporter 10995

Franta B, Bonneuil C and Choquet P-L, ‘Early Warnings and Emerging Accountability: Total’s Responses to Global Warming, 1971–2021’ [2021] Global Environmental Change

Bonneuil C, Choquet P-L and Franta B, ‘Early Warnings and Emerging Accountability: Total’s Responses to Global Warming, 1971–2021’ (2021) 71 Global Environmental Change

Franta B, ‘Weaponizing Economics: Big Oil, Economic Consultants, and Climate Policy Delay’ (2021) 31 Environmental Politics 555

Sánchez M, Delaporte P, Spiegel Y, and others, ‘A Laser‐Processed Silicon Solar Cell With Photovoltaic Efficiency in the Infrared’ (2021) 218 physica status solidi (a) – applications and materials science

Franta B, ‘Early Oil Industry Disinformation on Global Warming’ (2021) 30 Environmental Politics 663

Franta B, ‘Early Oil Industry Knowledge of CO2 and Global Warming’ (2018) 8 Nature Climate Change 1024

Franta B, Mazur E and Sundaram S, ‘Ultrafast Laser Processing of Silicon for Photovoltaics’ (2017) 63 International Materials Reviews 227

Franta B, ‘Litigation in the Fossil Fuel Divestment Movement’ (2017) 39 Law and Policy 393

Franta B, Pastor D, Gandhi H, and others, ‘Simultaneous High Crystallinity and Sub-Bandgap Optical Absorptance in Hyperdoped Black Silicon Using Nanosecond Laser Annealing’ (2015) 118 Journal of Applied Physics

Smith M, Sher M-J, Franta B, and others, ‘Improving Dopant Incorporation During Femtosecond-Laser Doping of Si With a Se Thin-Film Dopant Precursor’ (2013) 114 Applied Physics A: Materials Science and Processing 1009

Smith M, Sher M-J, Franta B, and others, ‘The Origins of Pressure-Induced Phase Transformations During the Surface Texturing of Silicon Using Femtosecond Laser Irradiation’ (2012) 112 Journal of Applied Physics

Franta B, Tweeton L, Feller S, and others, ‘Laser Modification of Alkali Borate Glasses’ (2009) 50 Physics and Chemistry of Glasses: European Journal of Glass Science and Technology Part B 305

Franta B, Williams T, Faris C, and others, ‘Laser Modification of Vanadate Glasses’ Physics and Chemistry of Glasses

Chapter (1)

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Franta B, ‘A Future Foreseen and Transition Delayed: The American Petroleum Industry and Global Warming, 1959–1986’ in S Gross and A Needham (eds.), Energy Transitions: A History of Energy Transitions in Europe and North America (University of Pittsburgh Press 2023)

internet-publication (9)

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Franta B and Levantesi S, ‘Italian Oil Giant Eni Knew About Climate Change More Than 50 Years Ago, Report Reveals’ (DeSmog, 24 September 2023)

Franta B, ‘Corporate Greenwashing: The Lawyers Are Coming’ (European Corporate Governance Institute, 9 March 2023)

Franta B, ‘Climate Litigation Rising: Hot Spots to Watch’ (Trends (American Bar Association), 22 December 2021)

Franta B, ‘What Big Oil Knew About Climate Change, In Its Own Words’ (The Conversation, 28 October 2021)

Franta B, ‘The Other Merchants of Doubt: Big oil’s Economists’ (London School of Economics Business Review, 16 September 2021)

Franta B, ‘The Pernicious Influence of Big Oil on America’s Universities’ (The New Republic, 8 June 2020)

Franta B, ‘Shell and Exxon’s Secret 1980s Climate Change Warnings’ (The Guardian, 19 September 2018)

Franta B, ‘On Its 100th Birthday in 1959, Edward Teller Warned the Oil Industry about Global Warming’ (The Guardian, 1 January 2018)

Franta B, ‘Exposing Climate Change Obstruction’ (Project Syndicate, 1 July 2017)

Conference paper (2)

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Franta B, Sher M-J, Lin Y-T, and others, ‘Femtosecond Laser Hyperdoping and Micro Nanotexturing of Silicon for Photovoltaics’, Proceedings of SPIE (SPIE, the international society for optics and photonics 2012)

Franta B, Mazur E, Pastor D, and others, ‘Laser Doping and Texturing of Silicon for Advanced Optoelectronic Devices’

Patent (1)

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Franta B, Pastor D, Mazur E, and others, ‘Creation of Hyperdoped Semiconductors With Concurrent High Crystallinity and High Sub-Bandgap Absorptance Using Nanosecond Laser Annealing’

Report (3)

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Merner L, Franta B and Frumhoff P, ‘Identifying Gaps in Climate Litigation-Relevant Research: An Assessment from Interviews With Legal Scholars and Practitioners’ (Climate Social Science Network 2022)

Benjamin L, Bhargava A, Franta B, and others, ‘Climate-Washing Litigation: Legal Liability for Misleading Climate Communications’ (Climate Social Science Network 2022)

Franta B, Roa-Quiaoit H, Lo D, and others, ‘Climate Disasters in the Philippines: A Case Study of Immediate Causes and Root Drivers from Cagayan De Oro, Mindanao and Tropical Storm Sendong Washi’ (Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs 2016)

Other (1)

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Franta B, ‘Brief of Amici Curiae Robert Brulle, Center for Climate Integrity, Chesapeake Climate Action Network, Justin Farrell, Benjamin Franta, Stephan Lewandowsky, Naomi Oreskes, Geoffrey Supran, and the Union of Concerned Scientists in Support of Plaintiff-Appellee and Affirmance’