"Clarity about how corporate claims connect to strategy is not nice-to-have. It’s an imperative," writes Mary Johnstone-Louis for Forbes. She references the launch Oxford Carbon and Climate Advertising Library (OxCCAL) by the Oxford Sustainable Law Programme, which is a searchable database of over 1,700 fossil fuel industry ads.
After more than a year of research by a team of ten researchers, the Oxford Sustainable Law Programme’s Climate Litigation Lab, led by Associate Professor of Climate Litigation Benjamin Franta, has launched the Oxford Carbon and Climate Advertising Library (OxCCAL).
On 21 February, the Oxford Sustainable Law Programme, the Institute of Commonwealth Studies, and the International Nuremberg Principles Academy submitted a second joint comment to the Office of the Prosecutor (OTP) of the International Criminal Court (ICC) urging it to strengthen its draft policy on environmental crimes.
Rupert Stuart-Smith, senior researcher in climate science and attribution at Oxford Sustainable Law Programme and the Smith School, comments on recent analysis that finds the LA fires were made more likely due to climate change.
The links between COP and fossil fuel companies have been “embedded from the beginning,” stated Rolling Stone, with efforts led by the International Petroleum Industry Environmental Conservation Association, or IPIECA. Ben Franta said that IPIECA is “probably one of the most important organizations in the history of climate obstruction, as it looks like it played a key coordinating role for literally hundreds of fossil fuel companies…”
Rupert Stuart-Smith from the Oxford Sustainable Law Programme explains a new frontier of attribution science which seeks to attribute the impacts of climate change - such as heatwave mortality - and be used to hold high emitters to account in court.
Dr Thom Wetzer was quoted in The Wall Street Journal on Shell's court victory, which overturned a ruling that required its emissions to reduce by 45%. He told the paper that the win might be a "Pyrrhic victory that merely delays the inevitable."
Dr Thom Wetzer told The Guardian that a court ruling in Shell's favour has led the door "wide open" for future litigations. "Companies should act in anticipation of this norm being enforceable or face significant legal risk," he said.
Bloomberg Climate Columnist Lara Williams spoke to Dr Thom Wetzer about Shell's "Pyrrhic victory” in the courts.
As COP29 kicks off in Baku, Oxford Smith School academics will be on the ground contributing their insights and expertise to help ensure the negotiations are grounded in the latest science and research.