INTRODUCTION

It is no exaggeration to say that the age of corporate climate litigation is upon us. This is not only with respect to the number of cases filed globally against companies, lawsuits that implicate companies, and even pre-emptive lawsuits filed by companies. Such lawsuits affect companies in unprecedented ways: their valuation, their governance, and in turn, their role as key agents of climate mitigation and adaptation. This is new; a decade back, stakeholders in climate policy and governance were far more invested in the role of international institutions and the nation state. Now there are dedicated databases and research centres on the role of corporations. There are several explanatory factors behind this interest, including: dilution of reliance on the outcome of protracted negotiations under the United Nations Framework Convention of Climate Change (UNFCCC), a discursive shift from voluntary action to liability in scholarly commentary and popular outlets as evidence accumulates in impending ecological change, publicised evidence of undisclosed reports by companies, and the emergence of attention on ‘Carbon Majors’ as state-like actors in climate change. From the perspective of material or real-world effects of corporate climate litigation, there also appears to be a realisation that obtaining material remedies such as injunctions or damages is not the only goal of such cases. On the contrary, the indirect effect of driving behavioural change in corporations through monitoring sustainability claims, valuation of shares, and changes in investment portfolio appears to be the driving force behind such cases.