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Shell case puts spotlight on energy groups’ role in climate change

January 13, 2021

CSSN Scholar Joana Setzer is featured in Financial Times by Anjli Raval, discussing the increasing frequency of high-profile climate litigation. 

“‘If you look at these things as a whole, there is pressure growing from all sides,’ says Joana Setzer at the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment at the London School of Economics, who focuses on climate litigation and environmental governance. ‘There are lots of different strategies being tried. People are saying — how can we push the boundaries even further?’

‘We are still seeing many, many more failures of high-profile strategic litigation — like the liability cases against carbon majors or cases against governments challenging their lack of ambitious targets — than successes,’ says Ms. Setzer. ‘But lawyers who bring these kinds of cases know it will take many years and may end in failure. With climate litigation however, this is the problem — we don’t have the time.'”