Upcoming Critical Sustainabilties Lecture: Green Deal Hangover and Climate Litigation

We're excited to announce our first lecture of the year!

'Green Deal Hangover and Climate Litigation' by Dr. Christina Eckes examines whether courts can push governments and major companies to take stronger climate action when political commitments to the European Green Deal are weakening.

Description by Dr. Christina Eckes:

Europe's Green Deal was supposed to mark a new era of climate ambition. Instead, parts of it are now being delayed, diluted or even dismantled. When ambition was concretized into targets, plans, and obligations, governments and corporations started to roll or push back. However, as we have seen this summer, the climate crisis has not slowed down with the politics. So what happens when political ambition retreats while legal obligations and climate impacts become ever more tangible?

This lecture looks at the increasingly important role of climate litigation against this background. We will examine cases against governments, where courts are asked whether national climate policies are ambitious enough and whether states are doing their fair share.

We will also look at litigation against major corporations, where judges are confronted with the even harder question of how to translate the abstract goals of the Paris Agreement into concrete duties for individual companies? These cases go to the heart of a bigger debate. When climate politics stalls, can courts keep the transition on track, and should they?

📍 REC A2.09

🗓️ 5 October

🕦 17:15

(no sign up needed, you can just show up!)