Corporate Responsibility in Focus: Business and Human Rights in Climate Disputes

Business and Human Rights in the Climate Context

• Climate change is a fundamental human rights issue, not just an environmental one—impacting enjoyment of other human rights such as rights to life, health, property, and family life.
• There is growing recognition that businesses may contribute to climate change through their operations while also being impacted by its effects, generating different legal and ethical obligations.
• Business lawyers are increasingly required to integrate human rights frameworks (e.g. UN Guiding Principles, OECD Guidelines) into day-to-day advisory, particularly in respect of corporate governance and risk assessment advice.

Evolution of Soft Norm into Hard Law

• UNGPs and OECD Guidelines are gaining legal weight, serving not only as interpretive tools in national courts to assess corporate liability, but also as a framework for legislation such as the EU Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive.
• Courts in jurisdictions like the Netherlands have started referencing soft law instruments to define corporate duties of care in climate cases.
• The emerging jurisprudence suggests a legal hardening of soft law, especially where domestic legislation is silent or underdeveloped.

Key Litigation Trends and Case Law

• Milieudefensie v. Shell (Netherlands): While the Court of Appeal denied a specific emissions reduction target, it affirmed Shell’s general legal duty to mitigate climate change.
• Lliuya v. RWE (Germany): Court recognized that companies can, in principle, be liable for climate harm despite contributing a small percentage of global emissions.
• Kanseche villager claim against Associated British Foods plc: First UK case linking corporate duty of care to climate harm under tort law, which also displays ongoing test of UK jurisdiction post-Brexit.
• Litigation strategies span tort claims, shareholder suits, strategic lawsuits against public participation (SLAPP) defenses, and duty of vigilance actions.

Role of Lawyers: Advising Clients Navigating Climate Change Challenges

• BHR lawyers bridge traditional human rights law and corporate legal practice, helping clients manage legal, climate and reputational risks proactively.
• There’s a shift from “Can we?” to “Should we?” in legal advice—ethical and human-centric considerations are becoming more embedded in corporate legal practice.
• Law firms are increasingly forming multidisciplinary sustainability practices to help clients manage multi-disciplinary risks and opportunities.

Just Transition & Global South Perspectives

• Ubuntu philosophy (South Africa) highlighted: human rights are relational and embedded in community and environment.
• Enforcement challenges are pronounced in the Global South despite progressive legal frameworks, e.g. South Africa’s constitution vs. weak implementation.
• Africa Climate Change Toolkit by NZLA aims to demystify local legal frameworks to support mitigation/adaptation projects and unlock climate finance.

Human Rights Due Diligence and Corporate Accountability

• HRDD remains underdeveloped in many legal systems and firms; often treated separately from traditional corporate due diligence.
• Clients increasingly demand guidance on climate transition plans driven by investors and civil society without binding obligations.
• Lawyers must advise not just on compliance, but on forward-looking risk management as soft law norms become hard law and climate-related risks threaten traditional business models..

Looking Ahead: Legal and Strategic Shifts

• Expect continued “legal hardening” of soft law through case law and regional regulations.
• Advisory opinions from international human rights courts expected in 2025 may further shape the normative framework on climate and human rights.
• Law firms must build climate-literate, multidisciplinary teams and treat sustainability as core but not complementary to legal services.

Closing Reflections

• Law is no longer a neutral tool: it must be wielded consciously to support climate justice.
• There is no single legal roadmap—but through collaboration, stakeholder engagement, and normative clarity, legal professionals can enable a just and effective climate transition.

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