Our legal work
Innovative legal approaches are at the heart of what we do at Opportunity Green.
Our legal experts use the law to catalyse systemic change – whether that’s through challenging greenwashing, unpicking legal issues at the international level, or using legal action to hold governments and corporates to account.
We take strategic legal action
We work at the cutting edge of climate law, undertaking strategic legal analysis on pathfinding legal actions and complex legal issues. Our legal challenges drive impactful climate action across a range of sectors including shipping, aviation, steel and buildings.
In September 2023, we launched a major report (Un)Sustainable from Ship to Shore, highlighting the systemic nature of the cruise industry’s apparently misleading advertising, with claims made by some of the biggest international cruise companies such as Carnival, MSC Cruises and Costa Cruises. We have since filed related complaints to the UK’s Advertising Standards Authority and supported partner organisations in similar actions in other countries.
In collaboration with partners from across Europe, we have also launched a legal challenge against the EU Commission over its Taxonomy for sustainable activities and its bid to label fossil fuel planes and ships as green, potentially driving huge amounts of private finance towards these highly polluting vehicles.
Our aim is to use legal levers to change policies and behaviours, to direct finance flows to climate solutions, to protect our natural world, and to promote corporate accountability, equity and climate justice.
We work at the cutting edge of international law
International legal frameworks are crucial to securing the global action needed to address climate change. So we use our skills to look for sticking points in international law that are inhibiting global action, and then we try to unstick them.
This enables us to make submissions on complex legal issues to international courts, states, and United Nations’ special rapporteurs.
Last year, Opportunity Green put forward a supporting submission to The International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS) urging ITLOS to recognise that countries must adopt rules on vessel pollution in line with the 1.5°C temperature goal. In a groundbreaking moment for international climate law, ITLOS has since confirmed that human-caused greenhouse gas emissions constitute “pollution of the marine environment” and that States therefore must meet stringent obligations under international law to address pollution from land, air and sea, informed by the 1.5°C temperature goal and the best available science.
We have also submitted a written statement to the world's foremost court, the International Court of Justice (ICJ), to confirm that States must do more to address the substantive climate impacts from international aviation and shipping, and responded to the Special Rapporteur on climate change on their call for inputs on “corporate accountability in the context of human rights and climate change”.
Our aim is to strengthen climate law globally to bring about transformative change, promoting equity and climate justice.
Our publications
Read some of our legal publications and more information about our legal actions below:
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Legal briefing for policymakers: ITLOS advisory opinion
Our latest legal briefing analyses the implications of the ITLOS advisory opinion on international shipping and aviation.
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Submission to the International Court of Justice
OG asks the ICJ to confirm that States must do more to address the substantive climate impacts from international aviation and shipping.
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EU Taxonomy Challenge
We joined four other NGOs launching a legal challenge to the EU Commission’s Taxonomy for sustainable activities.
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UN submission on accountability in the context of human rights and climate change
Submission to the Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights in the context of climate change.
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Supporting submission to the International Tribunal of the Law of the Sea
We ask ITLOS to confirm that the law of the sea obliges countries to decarbonise international shipping.
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Joint paper on the necessity for national ownership of the European Green Deal
We call for robust national climate governance to foster national leadership in delivering the EU’s objectives on climate neutrality and the rule of law.
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Submission to the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights
We respond to the OHCHRs call for input on the promotion and protection of human rights in the context of climate change, in advance of MEPC 77.
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Getting hydrogen right from the start: Legal analysis
The European Commission’s delegated act defining additionality and geographic and temporal correlation of Renewable Fuels of Non-Biological Origin goes beyond the authority the Commission was given.
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Requiring Oil Majors to Pay: A legal Analysis
This analysis discusses whether and how the EU can pass on a carbon price to fuel suppliers rather than European households.
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Charterer liability and the EU ETS
As the European Commission proposes adding shipping to the ETS, Opportunity Green considers the division of responsibility for compliance between ship owners and charterers.
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Freedom to Regulate the High Seas
We assess how countries can meet their obligation to reduce the climate impact of international shipping without conflicting with existing international law
“The law underpins everything we do as a society. At Opportunity Green, we believe that we can use the law to drive the transformative change our society needs to address climate change. We need to get the laws right in the first place, we need to unblock systemic barriers to climate action, and we need to challenge those who aren’t doing enough or who are actively endangering our planet and its communities. I’m thrilled to be leading a passionate team of legal experts working for a better future for everyone. It’s the most important challenge of our time and we don’t have time to get it wrong.”
David Kay, Interim Legal Director