Across the globe, climate change-related lawsuits are a growing trend. Cases are filed against governments and corporate entities alike to fill the policy and regulatory void and to drive action on climate change.
How is climate litigation becoming a strategic tool to advance climate policy goals?
To which extent is it driving governments and corporations to adopt more ambitious climate policies and to rethink their behaviors?
Join our online conversation with two legal experts, Margherita Cornaglia, Barrister at Doughty Street Chambers, and Zaneta Sedilekova, Climate Risk Associate at Clyde & Co and Biodiversity Risk Consultant at the Commonwealth Climate and Law Initiative, who will tackle these questions!
Margherita Cornaglia
Barrister, Doughty Street Chambers
Margherita is a barrister specialising in climate and human rights and equality and discrimination. She returned to practice in September 2020 following a year spent working as the last Judicial Assistant to Lord Kerr of Tonaghmore at the UK Supreme Court. Margherita's climate work bridges law and policy. She is active in strategic climate litigation, and is, for instance, currently instructed by the Global Legal Action Network in the case of Agostinho and others v Portugal and 32 other Contracting States, before the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg. On the other hand, she works in legal policy pertaining to climate change, and has been appointed to act as the First Legal Coordinator for the UNFCCC Climate Champions Team, in conjunction with FILE Foundation. In her role, Margherita is responsible for the Climate Champions' most recent efforts to strengthen compliance and the integrity of voluntary net zero commitments.
Zaneta Sedilekova
Climate Risk Associate, Clyde & Co; Biodiversity Risk Consultant, Commonwealth Climate and Law Initiative
Zaneta Sedilekova is an Associate in Climate Risk and Resilience team in international law firm Clyde & Co, where she specialises in providing advice on climate and biodiversity lability risk, as well as their impact on global supply chains and the wider financial sector. She is also a Biodiversity Risk Consultant at a global think tank Commonwealth Climate and Law Initiative, where she carries out research and provides strategic advice on how biodiversity loss can pose a material risk to financial institutions and corporations, with an emphasis on directors’ and fiduciary duties. Zaneta has co-authored several reports on climate and biodiversity risks, including Biodiversity Liability and Value Chain Risk report published in March 2022 by Clyde & Co, and Climate change risk – the future of law as we know it? report published by The Law Society of England and Wales in February 2021. She regularly speaks about climate and biodiversity risk and litigation at conferences, webinars and other events.
Daniela Morich
Co-director, Executive Certificate in Environmental Governance, Geneva Graduate Institute
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Executive Certificate in Environmental Governance, Geneva Graduate Institute.
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