Linked on our blogs with New NGO road map points the way to a more transparent EIB, and with CEE Bankwatch.
Client Earth is an organisation of activist lawyers committed to securing a healthy planet. We work oin Europe and beyond, bringing together law, science and policy to create pragmatic solutions to key environmental challenges. (Homepage).
Vision; Environmental justice; Partnerships; Staff; Supporters; Jobs;
Addresses and Contacts with London, and with Brussels;
Contact with the press.
About /what we do: We work to protect the environment through advocacy, lobbying, litigation and research. We use the best scientific and policy analysis when choosing strategic directions. Legal action, whether lobbying or in cases before courts and administrative bodies, will be built on solid law and science.
Using law as a tool for social change:
We believe that the law can be a powerful driver of positive social change. In the European environmental movement, public interest law has been an underused tool, and we have demonstrated that there is a strong case for building the capacity of the movement. Professor Dr Ludwig Krämer has observed:
« Environmental organisations in Western Europe are structurally and financially too weak to defend environmental interests effectively over a long period of time…The environment, without a voice and without strong lobby groups, loses out in almost every specific conflict of interests. »
The environmental issues we face collectively today also demand that environmental groups are prepared to respond in new ways. The major threats to our environment are global phenomenon, and as such the solutions must be global ones. Moreover, the biggest environmental issues – climate change, biodiversity loss, water scarcity and land degradation – are not only environmental issues but economic and security issues too.
Environmental issues such as climate change engage new environmental constituencies, with a central role for markets and investment. The right political, legal and regulatory frameworks are needed to mobilise the enormous flows of investment in global energy infrastructure towards developing and deploying low carbon technologies. Business leaders have a role as well as individuals and government.
Civil society has a powerful role to motivate these actors and create political pressure for action based on the scientific and economic evidence. We believe that the law and legal tools must feature in that mix, and it is useful to look at the specific contribution that law can make to environmental campaigns. The concept behind ClientEarth is based on a combination of talent linking law, science, economics and policy in a professional, interdisciplinary team. The mode of engagement for this team is that engagement and influence are backed by the power of legal action – litigation deployed in a strategic way where it can elevate moral arguments to legal action.
The contribution of law: … (full text).