Dear Friends,
The law has a critical role to play in accelerating the change we need to see. If you get the right laws in place, and enforce them, you change the rules of the game.
In a year marked by political backsliding on climate and nature – including a disappointing COP decision in Belém – one that dodged clear roadmaps to phase out fossil fuels and end deforestation, ClientEarth still achieved major legal wins for people and planet.
We secured a world-first ruling in Spain. In Las Conchas, Galicia, local authorities had failed to manage record levels of pollution from hundreds of pig farms. The toxic consequences of this pollution were found to undermine human rights. This landmark ruling gives us a powerful new precedent to leverage in the protection of people and nature across Europe.
We launched five actions – targeting Spain, Germany, Italy, Denmark and The Netherlands - as they continue to allow destructive bottom trawling in areas of the ocean which are supposed to be protected by law. Already, we secured a positive ruling from the General Court of the EU, confirming that protections must be effectively safeguarded.
We secured the first ever greenwashing judgement against an oil and gas major, with TotalEnergies ordered to immediately stop showing their misleading ads claiming that they put climate at the heart of their strategy, while continuing to increase production and investment in oil and gas.
We celebrated 15 years of ClientEarth in Poland and our progress protecting nature and fighting major coal projects there. And – for the fifth time – we challenged INEOS’ construction of a €4bn plastic factory in the port of Antwerp, showing that pollution from the plant could cause more deaths than jobs created.
There is still a huge amount of work ahead to secure a safe, stable climate and restore nature, but it’s worth stopping for a moment to recognise the ground we’ve already gained. As this turbulent year ends, let’s pause, take a breath, and acknowledge how far we’ve come.
Our impact in 2025
We are holding the line against EU deregulation
When the European Commission introduced the ‘Omnibus’ proposal in November 2024, it was framed as ‘simplification’. In reality, it threatened to dismantle key environmental laws, including the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive, by prioritizing short-term competitiveness over the health of our planet.
ClientEarth joined a coalition of NGOs to lodge a complaint regarding the undemocratic, rushed nature of the proposal. On November 27, we secured vital validation: the EU Ombudswoman confirmed maladministration. She ruled that the Commission had bypassed required impact assessments and excluded civil society in favour of industry lobbyists during consultations on the proposed Omnibus.
The Ombudswoman’s findings are timely. The European Parliament endorsed the simplification package in early November, weakening climate action. But the Ombudswoman’s findings give us powerful ammunition.
And ClientEarth lawyers have already cautioned that legal experts have identified strong grounds for challenges to the EU Commission's Omnibus proposal if passed into a law.
“At a time when EU political leaders are under pressure from foreign powers and corporate lobbies to dismantle the protections that ensure we – and our children – can live healthy lives in a safe environment, this decision is a vital reminder that the Commission is not above the law.” – Anais Berthier, Head of ClientEarth Brussels
We will ensure that environmental protections – and the democratic processes that uphold them – are respected.
We are bringing accountability to social media platforms
‘We cannot achieve climate action without information integrity’ – António Guterres, Secretary General of the United Nations
The World Economic Forum’s Global Risks Report 2025 lists the pollution of our information ecosystem as the top short-term global risk, threatening societal cohesion, eroding trust in institutions, and complicating international cooperation.
Decades of work towards building consensus and driving climate action is being undermined by sophisticated tactics from vested interests that aim to distract, delay or derail progress. Oil majors and others can continue to score record profits, while the rest of us experience the rising cost of living.
ClientEarth helped introduce litigation as a tool to tackle disinformation with a wave of successful cases since 2019 that challenged the greenwashing claims of major companies BP, KLM Airlines, BlackRock, Coca-Cola and TotalEnergies. As a result of our work, polluting companies pretending they are part of the solution now have to consider the real risk they’ll face legal action.
And this November, at COP30, we made digital information integrity a priority. We urged all countries to recognise the threat of climate disinformation and use the power of the law to uphold truth and protect climate action.
We launched our new Digital Distortion report highlighting how social media has been a catalyst for the spread of disinformation – with algorithms that boost and incentivise false climate narratives, weakening the popular consensus for environmental protection.
The report suggests that social media platforms are failing to comply with new EU rules, and we are calling for robust enforcement to address the systemic risks.
Our analysis was referenced in Irish Times, El País and The Guardian COP30 coverage.
We are helping to strengthen China's environmental laws
When the goal is tackling climate change, what happens in China – both the world’s biggest emitter and biggest investor in renewables – matters for all of us. The country is now undertaking the ambitious task of drafting its first Environmental Code, which will integrate over 30 existing laws.
This is a crucial opportunity to strengthen environmental rules in China.
To ensure this new Code is as robust as possible, ClientEarth shared detailed recommendations on sections including energy transition, climate change, overseas investment and legal accountability and enforcement.
Global collaboration can help to inform an impactful outcome. We co-organized international workshops with top lawmakers from China's National People’s Congress and legal experts from Europe to knowledge-share and inspire a comprehensive and enforceable framework for climate action.
We will continue to engage with the Code on these key issues, complementing our work training new judges in China.
The country’s expanding investment in clean technologies and ecosystem restoration can offer a scalable blueprint for international environmental governance and long-term sustainability.
We are building the legal field in the Philippines
In the Philippines, we have helped transform a pilot into a growing movement. What began in 2021 as a single legal clinic has become a network of 20 law schools, supported by partners, the Philippine Earth Justice Centre and the Manila Observatory.
As a result, more than 300 law students have stepped into hands-on environmental work, and together, delivered over 50 community trainings across 69 communities – giving people the legal tools to defend their land, air and water.
Students in the network have contributed to over 120 hours of legal research and drafting, helping communities to share the environmental codes that will protect them. We are harnessing this momentum to explore opportunities to expand this model to Indonesia – nurturing the next generation of environmental defenders.
What's to come in 2026
We have been a voice for nature and climate in court, but there's more to be done.
For 2026, our ambition ramps up. Next year, you can expect ClientEarth to:
Hold Big Tech to account
- Digital tools shape our lives. But behind the promise of progress lies an industry whose vast and growing power can undermine democracy, human rights and the environment.
- In 2026, with your support, we’ll supercharge our work on disinformation while confronting the environmental fallout of AI – with a focus on the soaring energy demand from mega data center projects. We’ll push for a new standard of digital accountability where innovation must serve people and the planet, not jeopardise them.
Integrate climate justice with social justice
- Building on the milestone decision this Summer from the world's highest court – the International Court of Justice – that big polluters must scale up their efforts to address climate change, we’ll turn to national, constitutional and international human rights courts to lead bold, strategic cases that galvanise action from the big players.
- Whether it’s communities displaced by landslides in Uganda, people suffering under extreme heat in Spain, or populations poisoned by farming pollution or toxic chemicals – we’ll fight so that basic rights to health, safety and a stable environment are not an afterthought, but the backbone of every one of our interventions. Because real justice demands no less.
Protecting retirement savings
- ClientEarth USA is preparing legal action in US federal court that reinforces the critical role that climate risk plays in employers’ proper management of employee retirement savings.
- Without maintaining a rigorous management process – one that considers climate risk as part of evaluating material financial risk – employers are putting the savings of their employees in jeopardy. Through this legal action, ClientEarth USA aims to unveil the clear recognition that investments and industries are vulnerable to physical risks, such as extreme weather events. These risks must be minimized within investor portfolios. We need a shift of capital away from those risky investments, and towards protecting millions of Americans from climate-related financial losses. It’s a ticking time bomb threatening their retirement savings.
Thank you
We hope this provides a powerful snapshot of the change we are creating. With over 160 active cases, we are driving action for climate and nature on a global scale.
With the help of our supporters and partners, we can transform the way we produce energy, feed ourselves, traverse the earth and interact with nature.
Together, we can overcome the inertia of the status quo and move into a fairer world where we can live well, within planetary boundaries.
Do you have questions or comments on any of our work? Get in touch at philanthropy@clientearth.org.