"What lawyers can do about climate change", 1 Jan 2017

...The workshop [‘What Lawyers can do about Climate Change’] was motivated by the developing reality that ‘climate change law’ is now extending beyond high-level international negotiations...to infiltrate daily legal practice...[T]he workshop focused on two aspects of legal practice: climate change in non-contentious legal practice; and climate change litigation...The main objective of this first session was to explore how environmental, corporate and government lawyers are advising clients and how that role will evolve in future...The framing issue for this session was how...we are beginning to see business practices changing...Key issues that arose in discussion concerned:

• the remit of practising lawyers when advising clients;
• what climate change ‘looks like’ as a legal or business issue; and
• how lawyers should be advising clients on climate-related risks and potential liabilities, opportunities, and policies in a variety of sectors going forward...

...Key questions raised for discussion in [the second] session were:

• What do ‘climate change’ cases look like?
• How do you ensure that they do not undermine a stable legal order?
• Are climate change cases transferable across jurisdictions?...