The European Commission has recently come under fire for attempting to weaken its laws on corporate accountability. Dr Thom Wetzer commented: “The European Union is proving itself not to be a reliable regulator because they’re flip-flopping in the face of changing political winds.”
A Peruvian farmer’s case against German multinational energy company RWE has been dismissed in court. Despite the setback, Dr Thom Wetzer stated in Common Dreams that the case had set "a remarkable precedent" that could enable future litigations.
Ben Franta explains how a new court case has confirmed the principle that private companies can be held liable for climate damage.
The EU has announced plans to simplify the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive, a move Dr Thom Wetzer described as "really risky" and a "a retrograde step."
The upshot is that “litigation risk on emission reduction is significant in the EU,” added Wetzer. “And that sets the European Union apart from many other parts of the world.”
A letter from 31 of Europe's leading legal scholars, including Thom Wetzer and Benjamin Franta from the Oxford Sustainable Law Programme, advises against proposed changes that would significantly weaken Article 22 of the EU Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD).
Raconteur interviewed Dr Benjamin Franta on CLARA, an AI tool built by his team that can produce fast, accurate reports on fossil fuel company activities. “By increasing accountability, we hope AI can be a leveller – not just something big companies use for their own interests but also something people can use to hold corporations accountable," said Dr Franta.
A new open access AI tool created by researchers at the University of Oxford’s Sustainable Law Programme produces reports on the historical activities of fossil fuel companies in respons
"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.