We need urgent action to tackle the climate emergency.

The 2015 Paris Agreement was a landmark global response to combat climate change that commits States to pursue efforts to limit global average temperature increase to 1.5oC above pre-industrial levels, and keeping such increase “well below” 2oC.

There are more than 1,500 climate laws or policies globally. These laws, and others, like those relating to human rights, environmental protection, land use planning, corporate governance and even financial regulation, are powerful tools to change the system and protect our planet. But only if they are properly enforced.

6

countries have so far passed net-zero targets into national law.

2x

over the past 30 years the world has more than doubled the amount of man-made carbon emissions in the atmosphere.

2

countries have a carbon emissions reduction plan that would keep us on course for 1.5 degrees warming, and only 8 have a plan that is consistent with 2 degrees of warming.

103

global businesses are responsible for 70% of the world’s historic emissions since 1751

What we do

We need urgent action to tackle the climate emergency. We believe the law is the most powerful tool we have to change the system and hold governments and companies to account.

We use the law in three ways:

  1. We work to ensure governments and companies establish ambitious climate laws, plans and policies that are in line with the Paris Agreement.

  2. We monitor these and existing laws, plans and policies to ensure they are enforced and embedded at all levels of decision making.

  3. We bring legal challenges when governments and companies fail to deliver on their environmental obligations.

What we've achieved

Our lawyers assisted a group of Torres Strait Islanders to bring a world-first complaint to the UN Human Rights Committee against the Australian Government over their inaction on climate change. We’ve engaged with 100 councils in England regarding the need for their new planning policies to support delivery of the UK’s net zero target. We put an end to Poland’s last planned coal plant by taking an innovative shareholder legal challenge.   

$25m

in climate-adaptation spending promised to the Torres Strait Islands following our legal complaint

96%

of BP’s annual spend was on oil and gas, but its ads focused on clean energy. We launched a complaint and BP pulled its ad campaign.

Our complaint against BP

We brought a world-first legal complaint against BP for its advertising campaign Possibilities Everywhere, which we said could mislead people into thinking that BP are a renewables company, when in reality 96% of the company’s spend was on oil and gas. Just months after our legal complaint, BP CEO Bernard Looney announced that the company will “stop corporate reputation advertising” and that they would end their ad campaign.

Learn more
Climate change will be the defining feature of this century and our work is driving the step change in state policy and corporate behaviour we need to create a safe low carbon future.
Sophie Marjanac, Accountable Corporations Lead

Take action

Traditional life on the islands of the Torres Strait is under existential threat from climate impacts like rising seas. Sign the petition calling for the Australian government to take action.

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