Approximately 230 climate lawsuits have been filed against corporations and governments in 2023, according to a qualitative report published on Thursday by the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment, finding that litigation cases continue to rise swiftly.

"Strategic climate cases continued to be filed against companies, with about 230 such cases now identified from 2015 to the present," the report stated, determining the main trends in corporate climate litigation.

The concept of "climate-washing", the practice of corporations misleading consumers to believe their products are sustainable through false claims and misinformation, is one of the key trends present in climate-aligned lawsuits. There have been over 140 cases with a success rate of around 70% in favor of the claimants. There are currently more than 30 active "polluter pays" lawsuits, aiming to hold companies accountable for climate-related damage that is allegedly a result of high greenhouse gas emissions. 

The United States accounts for the majority of the lawsuits with 129 cases, followed by the United Kingdom with 24 legal complaints. Panama and Portugal filed climate litigation cases for the first time this year. Climate-related lawsuits are gradually rising and have been recorded in 55 countries, where 8% of cases have extended to the Global South, as announced by UNEP in September 2022.

“Climate litigation … has become an undeniably significant trend in how stakeholders are seeking to advance climate action and accountability,” said UNEP's head of international environment law Andy Raine.

Shell green-washing lawsuit

Back in February 2023, Shell directors were sued over the company's climate policy, which the plaintiffs argue is insufficient to meet climate commitments and puts the corporation in danger as the globe shifts to clean energy.

ClientEarth, an environmental law firm, filed a lawsuit against the 11 directors in England's High Court. According to ClientEarth, this is the first action in the world trying to hold corporate executives accountable for failing to properly prepare their organization for the net zero transition.

The law firm, which owns a small stake in Shell, is suing under the UK Companies Act with the backing of a group of large pension funds and other institutional investors. It argues that a global shift to low-carbon energy is unavoidable as world governments act to end the climate problem and that Shell's refusal to change quickly enough endangers the company's prosperity and wastes the money of its investors on unnecessary fossil fuel projects.

Eco groups sue Biden admin over drilling permits

Three environmental organizations sued the Biden administration on June 19, 2022, over its granting of thousands of permits allowing firms to drill for fossil fuel in violation of federal law.

The plaintiffs in the suit filed in the Federal District Court for the District of Columbia alleged that the Bureau of Land Management violated the Endangered Species Act, as well as the National Environmental Policy Act and the Federal Land Policy and Management Act when it handed out 3,500 permits for oil drilling in Wyoming and New Mexico.

The environmental groups, namely the Center for Biological Diversity, WildEarth Guardians, and the Western Environmental Law Center, explained that the drilling sites posed a threat to the ecosystems in their vicinity while jeopardizing 150 at-risk species.