As we have already seen so far this year, litigation funders are keen to target capital towards ESG cases, and have even gone so far as to fund individual law firms to pursue such litigation, as was the case with North Wall Capital’s financing of PGMBM. On the back of the COP 27 summit, some industry commentators are looking to the future of such litigation, focused on holding entities that disregard their climate impact to account.
An LFJ Conversation with Michael Kelley, Partner, Parker Poe
As we have already seen so far this year, litigation funders are keen to target capital towards ESG cases, and have even gone so far as to fund individual law firms to pursue such litigation, as was the case with North Wall Capital’s financing of PGMBM. On the back of the COP 27 summit, some industry commentators are looking to the future of such litigation, focused on holding entities that disregard their climate impact to account.
In an article for Sentry Funding, Rachel Rothwell provides an overview of the current state of litigation targeting environmental issues, as well as looking ahead to how this space will evolve. Citing a study by Columbia Law School, Rothwell highlights that there are over 2,000 cases involving issues related to climate change. Furthermore, the article notes that this type of litigation has progressed from being primarily focused on misdeeds by nation states to now include corporations.
Rothwell also uses the examples of cases brought against companies like Vedanta Resources and Royal Dutch Shell to demonstrate the successful impact climate activists have had in courts. The article suggests that ‘shareholder activism’ is likely to be at the forefront of future climate-related litigation, and will expand to include a broader range of companies that have less immediate impact on the environment.
