ClientEarth

The future of nature depends on you. As humans, we rely on the natural world every day for nourishment, medicine and a stable environment to live in. But, we are losing nature at the fastest rate in history. Large corporations are destroying our natural world, and governments aren’t doing enough to protect it. We advocate for stronger laws for climate and nature, protect precious ecosystems from profit-driven companies and work with communities, ensuring they have the legal tools to defend their natural resources. And we can’t do it without you. Join the legal fight for nature. Donate today 👉 https://lnkd.in/ekJ9HffV

⚖ The historic Swiss Seniors court win has been used in a legal appeal by a Polish citizen. ⚖   In 2021, we supported Polish citizen Małgorzata Górska and four other claimants in taking action against the Polish government for its inadequate response to climate change. We and Małgorzata are now bringing an appeal before the country’s Supreme Court. The appeal will be helped by the new legal leverage provided by the recent EU Court of Human Rights ruling in favour of a group of Swiss seniors, who took their government to court over climate inaction.   The case successfully argued that the Swiss senior women’s right to private and family life was being violated due to their government’s lack of ambitious national climate action, a claim also being made by Górska. “My life and my agricultural enterprise have been affected by a dramatically changing climate. By now, this is true for everyone on the planet. Since I started my first case back in 2021, the consequences of climate change have become even more dramatic, across the world. I turned to the courts because it is time for change and politicians must be compelled to. Climate justice trailblazers have been such an inspiration to me – and I’m proud to follow in their footsteps.” Małgorzata Górska Read more 👉 https://lnkd.in/enkECJSu

Why is biodiversity so important? Without biodiversity, our entire support system for human, as well as animal life, would collapse. We rely on nature to provide us with food and clean water, for a lot of medicines, and to prevent flooding and other extreme weather effects. This is why we must not just stop the nature crisis, but restore nature too. We need to do so for nature itself, but also for resilience. Areas like peatlands and wetlands store carbon, therefore it’s incredibly important that we restore them so that they can help us tackle climate change. It’s not enough for us to stop destroying nature, we must restore it. Find out more:

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Our CEO Laura Clarke OBE was invited earlier in the year by Chris Stark and The Carbon Trust to give the keynote speech and their annual conference. Below is Laura's speech, focusing on how we can bridge the ambition gap between climate commitments and delivery, and how the law can help us do so.

A Financial Times' investigation reveals that many EU owned boats are using local flags to fish in West African waters - sometimes in ways that are off-limits to European flagged boats. The lack of transparency and controls around these foreign-owned vessels make it hard to track down what they are fishing or to punish illegal activities. This is concerning – foreign boats taking local flags have become a major driver of overfishing in Africa – harming the livelihoods and food security of artisanal fishing communities that compete with larger ships. EU member states need to tighten control on their fishing vessels - wherever they are in the world - and make sure illegally-caught fish doesn't end up on our plates at the expense of local communities.

TotalEnergies is currently under scrutiny in South Africa for its marketing allegedly featuring misleading sustainability claims. The claimant in this claim pointed out discrepancies between Total's sustainability marketing and its actual environmental record, including its involvement in projects such as the East African Crude Oil Pipeline. We're also in the process of legal action against TotalEnergies for misleading sustainability advertising that started in 2022. We argue that the fossil fuel giant is using such advertising to convince consumers it can become carbon neutral by 2050, despite continuing to promote and sell more fossil fuels.

As the planet faces unprecedented environmental challenges, understanding the connection between the climate and nature (or biodiversity) crises has never been more crucial. Restoring nature is vital in the fight against climate change. Healthy ecosystems, such as forests, wetlands, and oceans, act as carbon sinks, and absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Diverse ecosystems are more resilient to climate impacts, and better equipped to provide essential services like water filtration, soil stabilisation, and crop pollination. These two crises are both affected by each other and driven by many of the same things. We can’t solve one without solving the other. Read more 👇

🚨Hungary is now investigating Coca-Cola for greenwashing.🚨 Hungary’s consumer protection authority is investigating Coca-Cola and other beverage companies over the possibility their claims about recyclable packaging could be misleading shoppers. This comes as a result of the complaint we supported BEUC in filing to the European Commission against Coca-Cola and two other food and drinks giants, over their use of the same misleading ‘100% recyclable’ and ‘100% recycled’ claims on plastic water bottles sold across Europe. The regulator said “the challenged advertising claims are likely to be unfounded and companies are unlikely to have sufficient evidence to prove the environmental benefits of bottles.” Pressure is mounting for Coca-Cola and other drinks companies this summer, as the company’s greenwashing at the Paris Olympics was widely publicised, and we’re seeing big strides in regulatory awareness and action. It seems time's nearly up for recycling claims that can't deliver on their promises. Companies making these kinds of bold claims about recycling should pay attention to this rise in legal action - the packaging sector is on notice.

GREAT NEWS🌟Today, the Nature Restoration Law comes into force. What a ride it has been for our #RestoreNature campaign - supported by over 1 million Europeans. Now, it's on national governments to come up with plans to restore our rivers, forests, seas, wetlands and green our cities!