05 November 2026
Death by a Thousand Cuts
On 30 September 2026, the Swiss Federal Council informed the Committee of Ministers (CoM) of the Council of Europe that it would not set up an independent climate council. A year earlier, the CoM had invited Switzerland to consider such a body, as part of its supervision of KlimaSeniorinnen – the first binding international judgment to find a state in breach of its climate obligations. Switzerland’s recent refusal is not an isolated phenomenon but part of a pattern of resistance that has accompanied the judgment since its delivery in April 2024. Continue reading >>
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05 November 2026
Der schleichende Tod eines Urteils
Am 30. September 2026 teilte der Schweizer Bundesrat dem Ministerkomitee des Europarats mit, dass er keinen unabhängigen Klimarat einrichten werde. Ein Jahr zuvor hatte das Ministerkomitee die Schweiz eingeladen, ein solches Gremium zu prüfen. Dies geschah im Rahmen der Überwachung, ob das Urteil KlimaSeniorinnen – das erste verbindliche Urteil eines internationalen Gerichts, das einen Verstoss eines Staates gegen seine klimabezogenen Verpflichtungen feststellte – umgesetzt wird. Die jüngste Absage der Schweiz ist kein Einzelfall. Sie fügt sich in ein Muster des Widerstands ein, das das Urteil seit seiner Verkündung im April 2024 begleitet. Continue reading >>29 October 2026
Waiting or Pushing?
On 19 October 2026, the UK Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero agreed to the grant of consent by the Oil and Gas Authority for the Jackdaw gas field project under the Offshore Oil and Gas Exploration, Production, Unloading and Storage (Environmental Impact Assessment) Regulations 2020. The decision deserves close attention by climate and energy lawyers both for its compatibility with the remaining global carbon budget and for its treatment of scope 3 emissions. T Continue reading >>
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28 October 2026
France’s Ban on Fossil Fuel Advertising and Its European Implications
The French Conseil d’État’s judgment of 2 October 2026 reaffirms the government’s obligation to give practical effect to environmental legislation by establishing a clear framework for fossil fuel advertising. Beyond strengthening legal certainty and transparency, it raises fundamental questions about the balance between climate protection, commercial freedom and the prevention of misleading environmental claims, while potentially informing future regulatory developments across Europe. Continue reading >>
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15 October 2026
Beyond Boulder
The making of climate law is a distinctly global exercise. Perhaps more than in many other areas of law, climate litigation develops through a conversation across jurisdictions, as litigants borrow arguments, evidence, and strategies from proceedings elsewhere, while judges engage with decisions from vastly different legal traditions. And so, when one of the world’s biggest players in the legal landscape speaks, the rest have particular reason to listen. Continue reading >>
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11 October 2026
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 >>
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09 October 2026
A New Frontier for Project-Based Climate Litigation
On 7 October 2026, the High Court of Australia held, by three judges to two, that a New South Wales (NSW) planning authority must consider conditions to limit a coal mine’s scope 3 emissions. This meant the authority could not simply say they had considered those emissions, representing 98% of the project's greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions – they had to show they had considered planning conditions that would minimise them. Although much of the Australian apex High Court ruling turns on the interpretation of very specific NSW statutory language, it nevertheless has important implications for climate litigation elsewhere in the world, including in Europe. Continue reading >>
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03 September 2026
Who Can Demand Justification for the EU’s Climate Ambition?
On 2 September 2026, the General Court handed down its judgment in Global Legal Action Network (GLAN) and CAN-Europe v Commission (T-120/24). Its central conclusion was to be expected. The EU’s Aarhus Regulation cannot be used to challenge indirectly a level of climate ambition fixed by the EU legislature. An implementing power does not allow the Commission to rewrite legislation, even indirectly. However, we see the constitutional significance of the judgment elsewhere Continue reading >>
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03 September 2026
The Constitution Meets the Climate
The climate crisis has reached South Africa’s Constitutional Court. A dispute over offshore oil and gas exploration along South Africa’s Wild Coast developed into a much wider constitutional inquiry. The Court brought questions of participation, dignity, culture and environmental protection into conversation with the growing demands of climate responsibility. The judgment illustrates how climate change can acquire constitutional significance without the recognition of a freestanding constitutional right to a stable climate. Continue reading >>
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28 August 2026