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."
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.
A new study, developed through pro-bono partnerships with 48 leading law firms around the world, provides the most detailed view yet of how key economic rules are aligning – or not – to climate goals.
Thom Whetzer joins the United Nations Secretary General’s Taskforce on Net Zero Policy which facilitates global action by non-state entities - including businesses, investors and cities - to accelerate emissions reduction a
"Climate litigation is not just growing — it’s snowballing," writes The Daily Upside. However, international courts have been slow to catch up. Dr Ben Franta of the Oxford Sustainable Law Programme comments: “It’s a well-known challenge [with] international courts: Because they don’t have independent police power, they must persuade member states to comply with their orders.”
For the first time, the European Court of Human Rights has ruled that weak government climate policies violate fundamental human rights. Research co-authored by the Sustainable Law Programme was cited in the final judgement in favour of the KlimaSeniorinnen.
Academics at the University of Oxford have called for rigorous net zero ‘ground rules’ – encompassing laws, regulation and policy – to be implemented and enforced across the world, in an article published in Nature Climate Change today.
Lawyers and scientists including leading academics from the Oxford Sustainable Law Programme called for the International Criminal Court to actively engage in addressing environmental degradation and destruction. They noted that human activities leading to severe environmental harm often violate human rights, and so could be treated in the same as way as crimes such as genocide or crimes against humanity.
Lake Palcacocha is at increased risk of bursting its banks and flooding the town of Huaraz below it, because of climate change, reports the The Guardian. The article cites research led by Dr Rupert Stuart-Smith, which concluded that human-caused climate change has shrunk the glacier which feeds the lake, in turn raising the water to dangerous levels.
Companies and regulators are waking up to potential threats from climate litigation, but have only just begun to grapple with how these risks should be evaluated, states Environmental Analyst in a report on new research by the Oxford Sustainable Law Programme.