Justice for the Planet: The case for climate litigation
Outrage + Optimism
Persephonica
4.7 • 1K Ratings
🗓️ 13 March 2025
⏱️ 44 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
How can the law be used to champion human rights, drive progress and fight for climate justice? Paul Dickinson is joined by Laura Clarke, CEO of ClientEarth, the non-profit lawyers for the planet working to protect life on Earth.
Laura shares how ClientEarth has successfully challenged corporate greenwashing, from the Dutch courts ruling against airline KLM for misleading customers, to forcing a Polish company to change the misleading name of its ‘eco-pea coal’. And beyond corporate accountability, how they take on national governments to ensure they uphold their environmental commitments.
In this latest in our series on the new levers of change, co-presenters Tom Rivett-Carnac and Christiana Figueres join Paul to reflect on the ways in which law, climate and justice intersects. Christiana shares her excitement on the new ways in which the ‘web of jurisprudence’ is being woven in a field with little legal precedent.
Plus, each share their take on the news that former Outrage + Optimism guest Mark Carney will become the next Prime Minister of Canada. How will he deal with President Trump amid the ongoing US-Canada trade war?
Learn more
💼 ClientEarth case study: KLM Greenwashing found illegal
📖 Read more about ClientEarth https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/client-earth-james-thornton/3713181?ean=9781911344810
⚖️ Learn about how young people are taking action in court https://www.kcl.ac.uk/climate-law/assets/climatechangeandyoungpeople-shortversion.pdf
🛢️ Find out how big oil’s campaign financing for Donald Trump’s re-election may have prevented a congressional investigation
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/mar/06/big-oil-investigation-congress-republicans
Follow us on social media for behind the scenes moments and to watch our videos:
Instagram @outrageoptimism
LinkedIn @outrageoptimism
Or get in touch with us via this form.
Producer: Jarek Zaba
Video Producer: Caitlin Hanrahan
Exec Producer: Ellie Clifford
Commissioning Editor: Sarah Thomas
This is a Persephonica production for Global Optimism and is part of the Acast Creator Network.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Hello and welcome to outrage and optimism. |
| 0:06.0 | I'm Tom Rivikarnik. |
| 0:07.0 | I'm Christiana Figueres. |
| 0:09.0 | And I'm Paul Dickinson. |
| 0:10.0 | This week we discussed the possibility of strategic litigation as a lever for change at a difficult political moment. |
| 0:16.0 | And we speak to Laura Clark, CEO of Klein Earth. |
| 0:20.0 | Thanks for being here. |
| 0:28.4 | So friends, I know we've all been excited about doing this episode on strategic litigation. |
| 0:31.5 | You in particular, Christiana, and we'll get to that in a minute because this is one of your favorite topics. Yay! But before we do, I think we cannot ignore the things that are happening in the world around us. |
| 0:39.0 | And somebody well known to us, a friend, has been elected Prime Minister of Canada. |
| 0:44.0 | So I think we need to talk about that. |
| 0:45.4 | Indeed. |
| 0:46.4 | In first place, the next Prime Minister of Canada, Mark Carney, with 13 31,674 votes representing 85.9% of the vote. All right, and there you have it. |
| 1:03.1 | It took one ballot and a landslide victory. Mark Carney is the next liberal party leader, the next Prime Minister of Canada. |
| 1:12.3 | So Mark Carney, of course, well known to many listeners to this podcast. Former guest, of course, |
| 1:16.3 | we've had him on a couple of times, former governor of the Bank of Canada than the Bank of |
| 1:19.9 | England, elected really in Canada on the basis of its ability to be a strong steward of the |
| 1:26.2 | economy. This was an election inside the Liberal Party. |
| 1:29.1 | It was not a general election, so he is nominated to lead the Liberal Party, |
| 1:33.3 | who have been very far behind in the polls against the Conservatives. |
| 1:37.1 | Now it's looking a little bit closer. |
| 1:38.6 | It is expected that Carney, who does not have a majority in the Canadian Parliament, |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Persephonica, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of Persephonica and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2025.