This section includes links to legal resources and organizations who are fighting climate change. These include information for policymakers, legal advice on climate risk, model contractual clauses, and education materials for law schools and practicing attorneys. Four are highlighted to get you started. Additional resources follow, organized by resource type.
Highlights
| ClientEarth | ClientEarth is an international environmental law charity, partnering across borders, systems and sectors. Their work focuses on changing the system – informing, implementing and enforcing the law. They serve European citizens and NGOs in over 50 countries by advising decision-makers on policy and training legal and judicial professionals. |
| Climate Change Legal Blog Archive | The Climate Change Legal Blog Archive is an aggregation of legal blog posts offering information, insight, and commentary on climate change law and climate litigation published by lawyers globally. The archive has legal climate change blogs, podcasts and videos. |
| EarthJustice | Earthjustice is a U.S. based nonprofit public interest organization litigating environmental issues. Serves public interest groups in communities impacted by climate change. |
| The Chancery Lane Project | The Chancery Lane Project (TCLP) is a collaborative effort of global legal professionals. TCLP works with lawyers to create contractual clauses ready to incorporate into commercial agreements to offer climate solutions. |
NGOs
| Campaign for Greener Arbitrations: The Green Pledge | A group of arbitration practitioners committed to achieving sustainable change in the way in which arbitrations are managed. The campaign was founded by International Arbitrator Lucy Greenwood in 2019, with the aim of significantly reducing the carbon footprint of the arbitration community. |
| Climate Change Counsel | CCC’s mission is to accelerate solutions to climate change by using law to help private and public entities with related disputes. They turn climate ambitions into obligations by mobilizing the legal community toward a net zero future. It also provides research and project support to organizations working toward climate neutrality. |
| Community Legal Centres NSW | Community Legal Centres NSW is the representative body for almost 40 community legal centres in New South Wales, Australia. Community Legal Centres are independent non-government organisations that provide free legal services. |
| Greenpeace Legal Unit | Greenpeace International’s Legal Unit consists of a team of specialized lawyers that provide independent legal advice on: – strategic litigation to advance the fight against environmental destruction – risk management and strategic defense of campaigns, organization and staff – advocacy efforts to strengthen environmental and human rights. |
| Law Students for Climate Accountability | A movement across law schools in the United States and beyond, the group describes themselves as ‘uncovering the role of top law firms in the climate crisis’. Access provided to law students, firms and clients. |
| Lawyers for Good Government | L4GG’s Climate Change program tackles the causes and effects of climate change in the U.S. through two initiatives: Clean Energy and Climate Justice. Organizational efforts are aimed at city, county, state and local governments and municipalities, as well as tribal authorities and community-based environmental organizations. |
| Lawyers for Net Zero | A group of in-house counsel who are united by recognition of a massive opportunity for in-house lawyers to support their organizations to deliver significant and rapid climate action. Lawyers for Net Zero is part of a wider community of environmental and climate projects in the legal sector including the Campaign for Greener Arbitrations, Legal Sustainability Alliance, the ESELA network, ClientEarth, the Chancery Lane Project and the Net Zero Lawyers Alliance. |
| Legal Sustainability Alliance | The LSA is a collaborative network sharing best practices and working together to ensure law firms play a full part in tackling the climate crisis. LSA is open to all UK law firms, schools of law and in-house counsel. Members can access a range of tools, resources, advice and exclusive benefits to help them on their sustainability journey. |
| Net Zero Lawyers Alliance | Net Zero Lawyers Alliance (NZLA) is a coalition committed to help law firm clients reinforce, accelerate and support the implementation of internationally coherent legal frameworks and guidelines for transition to net zero by 2050. |
| Pace Energy and Climate Center | Pace University | Founded in 1987 as the Pace Energy Project, the Pace Energy and Climate Center has worked at the “intersection of energy and the environment”, engaging government decision makers and key stakeholders with research and analysis in law and policy. The Center has grown from its initial focus on energy regulatory law and policies to tackle transportation and fuels, as well as climate change mitigation and resilience. |
Non- and Not-For-Profit Organizations
| Action Ready | Action Ready is a not-for-profit, volunteer organization in Meanjin (Brisbane) Australia. They believe that educating the community in the law can help ordinary people subvert the system in new and creative ways while making informed, strategic decisions. The organization supports community-led action and legal information for justice, including climate justice and justice for First Nations people and protest movements. |
| Climate Counsel | Climate Counsel is a nonprofit outgrowth of Global Diligence LLP, a public interest legal advisory firm specializing in human rights, war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide, which began its work investigating crimes against humanity in Cambodia. Climate Counsel enables international lawyers to address climate change through their expertise in transnational crime and human rights protection. They partner with forensic architects, photographers, and scientists to build rigorous case-files and to present evidence publicly. |
| Green Pro Bono | Green Pro Bono's mission is to help nonprofits and social entrepreneurs define their legal needs and to provide legal assistance for environmental "change makers” that otherwise cannot afford the legal help they need. This includes unincorporated organizations and trusts, charities, foundations and nonprofits. |
| Internet Archive: Global Climate Change Law | The Internet Archive, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, is building a digital library of Internet sites and other cultural artifacts in digital form. IA’s mission is to provide “Universal Access to All Knowledge.” Free access. |
| Lawyers for Climate Action | Lawyers for Climate Action NZ Inc. (LCANZI) is a New Zealand registered incorporated society and not for profit comprised of barristers, solicitors, and legal academics from all over New Zealand. They have specialist expertise in many different areas of the law to assist community groups and individuals in New Zealand - on a reduced-fee or pro bono basis - with legal issues related to climate change. |
Podcasts
| Climate Break | A podcast on Climate law and policy produced by the University of California at Berkeley. It shares stories of climate progress and interviews with climate innovators in California and around the world, 90 seconds at a time. |
Educational Institutions & Programs
| California-China Climate Institute | The California-China Climate Institute is a UC-wide initiative housed jointly at UC Berkeley’s School of Law — through its Center for Law, Energy & the Environment — and Rausser College of Natural Resources, in partnership with the Institute of Climate Change and Sustainable Development at Tsinghua University — one of China’s preeminent research institutions. |
| Climate Resilience & Hazard Mitigation | Environmental Law Institute | ELI is working with partners around the world to develop legal, policy, and institutional solutions to address the impacts of climate change and create more resilient communities and ecosystems. |
| Sabin Center for Climate Change Law | Columbia University, School of Law | The Sabin Center for Climate Change Law develops legal techniques to fight climate change, trains students and lawyers in their use, and provides up-to-date resources on key topics in climate change law and regulation. |