ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Alessandra Lehmen

Alessandra Lehmen is a Climate Law Professor in the PhD and LLM Programs at the University of Caxias do Sul (UCS), Brazil, and co-chair of the Climate Law and Governance Initiative (CLGI), UK. She is an attorney qualified in Brazil and New York.

POSTS BY Alessandra Lehmen

11 October 2026

Alessandra Lehmen

Carbon Majors in Brazilian Courts

On October 9, 2026, Brazil’s Federal Prosecutor’s Office and a nonprofit environmental association, Instituto Preservar, sued Shell Brasil Petróleo Ltda. for damages caused by the April and May 2024 floods in my home state of Rio Grande do Sul. The filing now places Brazil among the jurisdictions where public enforcers sue fossil fuel producers, which the litigation over the 2024 floods had not previously included. It also offers a concrete setting for the interplay between the causal nexus of Brazilian environmental liability and the attribution of a climate disaster to an emitter. Continue reading >>

26 June 2026

Alessandra Lehmen

Mapping the Future

On 25 June 2026, the Paris Judicial Court became the first court to rule on the merits of Notre Affaire à Tous and others v. TotalEnergies SE. At its core, the case concerns whether TotalEnergies violated the French Commercial Code by failing to adequately report the climate risks associated with its activities and take action to mitigate those risks in line with the goals of the Paris Agreement. The decision demonstrates that a domestic due diligence statute can reach the full climate footprint of a global energy major. Continue reading >>

Alessandra Lehmen

Carbon Majors in Brazilian Courts

Mapping the Future

Hier brennt noch Licht.

The lights are still on here.