#31 Sandra Cossart: Why is ESG increasingly getting its day in court?

Listen to Sandra Cossart, Executive Director of Sherpa and Strategic Litigation expert.

The Grantham Institute - Climate Change and the Environment database now records more than 2000 cases of environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues, a tripling of the number since just 2019. Recent high profile cases have seen Shell ordered to cut its emissions in the Dutch courts. Volkswagen car owners winning compensation over false environmental claims about their vehicles. And the Bank of New York Mellon Fund fined 1.5 million USD about a failure of checks on ESG investment funds.

Some of Sherpa’s cases include current action seeking to get TotalEnergies to comply with the Paris Climate Agreement, a case seeking judicial investigation against fashion companies for alleged concealment of human trafficking and crimes against humanity in their supply chains and the prosecution of construction company Lafarge for crimes against humanity in Syria.

In this conversation, find out more about:

why strategic litigation is important and what are the obstacles
why we are seeing more and more cases on environmental, social and governance issues
the importance of civil liability in the CSDDD
how to get a better balance of power for victims and hold companies accountable

“We've been pushing for the CSDDD for years. The fact that there is a directive is a very positive sign because ten years ago we would not have bet on that. It also unleashed corporate lobbies that have undermined the text of the commission which was already not very ambitious. To be really efficient and to prevent environmental and human rights harm, changing the civil liability regime and reversing the burden of proof for victims is a prerequisite.”

Sandra Cossart in Frankly Speaking