ClientEarth founder James Thornton was a Wall Street lawyer who won over 80 cases to force the Reagan Administration to clean up polluted water. Then he moved to London, and ClientEarth was born.
Now we are over 300 people, with eight offices around the world, creating powerful change for life on Earth.
We take our first legal challenge against Kingsnorth Power Station, helping to quash plans for a new generation of coal plants in the UK.
In response to our work the UK Government agrees to do environmental assessments before approving new coal plants. A new generation of climate-damaging coal power is shelved.
We opened our doors in Brussels, where our first case forced the EU to let people go to court to protect the environment.
James Thornton was named by The New Statesmen as one of ’10 people who could change the world’.
We start our climate and forests programme, dedicated to defending carbon-sink forests and the people who depend on them.
We open our office in Warsaw. Our climate lawyers there will spend the next decade preventing many new coal power plants being built across Poland.
We are key players in getting an EU-wide law banning illegally harvested rainforest timber passed, significantly reducing CO2 emissions and protecting fragile habitats.
We setup the Sustainable Seafood Coalition with the vision of ensuring all fish and seafood sold in the UK comes from sustainable sources.
In the US, ClientEarth lodges a first-of-its kind “friend of the court” brief when the Environmental Protection Agency’s power to regulate carbon pollution comes under attack.
We win our court case against the UK government for failing to tackle dirty air.
Coal is the main cause of life-limiting air quality in Krakow. We convince the authorities to ban coal for domestic heating.
We launch our climate litigation team, which brings challenges against businesses and governments to drive action on climate change.
We begin to train judges and prosecutors in China to use environmental law. We've now trained over 1,500 Chinese judges and supported the development of more than 600 environmental courts.
We use law as a tool to mend the relationship between human societies and the Earth. We work all around the world, bringing together law, science and policy to create practical solutions to key environmental challenges.James Thornton, President and Founder
