Client Earth

About the organization

ClientEarth is an environmental organisation that uses the law to create systemic change and a future where people and planet thrive together.

Working in partnerships across borders, systems and sectors, ClientEarth works with the law at every stage, from drafting new laws, to implementing existing ones and holding governments and businesses to account when they don’t comply with them.

We are in a biodiversity crisis. Overexploitation of land and sea for food production is one of its key causes and is a major driver of climate change. As one of the world´s biggest agri-food traders, the EU could lead by example and set high environmental and health standards that will apply not only within Europe, but globally.

With their teams of legal experts, ClientEarth can develop the robust legal frameworks we need to protect wildlife and habitats and drive systemic change to Europe’s food systems. Their approach is rooted in an innovative use of legal tools – engaging in litigation, advocacy, and building effective environmental governance (the policy and rules that guide decision-making).

Stiftung Zukunft jetzt! and ClientEarth both seek to stop climate change, protect nature and ensure the preservation of a world worth living in. The partnership focuses on ClientEarth´s activities which use the law to protect the health of communities, nature and wildlife across Europe.

Highlights of the above work areas during 2023 are as follows:

Protecting Europe’s nature

In the EU, ClientEarth has been deeply engaged, notably through the coalition #RestoreNature campaign, in supporting a final version of the Nature Restoration Regulation, a piece of nature legislation considered by many experts to be the most promising for nature conservation and restoration since the Habitats Directive. It could become a cornerstone of Europe’s ambitions to restore biodiversity and ecosystem services for decades to come and demonstrate global leadership in addressing ongoing environmental crises.

Working intensively with partners from different NGOs and engaging with stakeholders in the European Commission, European Parliament, and Council of the European Union, ClientEarth has worked tirelessly during the past six months to ensure the legislation maintains its level of ambition and does not become watered-down despite strong pressure from some stakeholders.

The three EU institutions recently reached an agreement on a law which, while not ideal, is a big step for nature. You can read ClientEarth’s response here. The conclusive vote for the adoption of this law is scheduled to occur at the end of February 2024 in the European Parliament.

Protecting Lake Vico

Lake Vico, not far from Rome, is a Natura 2000 site site and the primary source of drinking water for local residents. Intensive agricultural activities led to an increase in fertiliser and pesticide use, which run off into the lake, affecting the quality of the water and deteriorating its habitats.

In June 2022, ClientEarth and partner Lipu-BirdLife Italy sent letters of warning to the public administrations of the Lazio region and the municipalities of Ronciglione and Caprarola, as well as the Water Service Authorities. Following unsatisfactory responses, they took the authorities to court.

In October 2023, news of a positive ruling based on the Water Directive was received: the Court found the Lazio region was in breach of the law by failing to take the necessary measures to protect Lake Vico and the people dependent on its resources from toxic environmental conditions.

In November 2023, a second significant successful outcome was achieved, based on the Nitrates Directive as the Lazio region was urged to act on the request to designate the area a Nitrates Vulnerable Zone. A targeted programme of action will now be applied to the area.

These successful decisions are extremely important not only because it holds regions accountable, but also as it acknowledges the damaging effect that monoculture can have on ecosystems.

This was a great major win for ClientEarth’s agriculture work. They continue to monitor the situation to ensure the action taken to protect Lake Vico is robust.

Traceable supply chains

The cocoa sector is one of the main drivers of deforestation in Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire.

The EU is the world’s largest importer of cocoa worldwide, and the groundbreaking EU Deforestation Law that entered into force in June 2023 – which aims to minimise the risk of deforestation and forest degradation associated with products entering the EU market– is expected to have huge implications for Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire given their current reliance on the European market for cocoa exports. While the law is being implemented, ClientEarth is engaging with civil society and stakeholders involved in ensuring that strong legal frameworks and traceability systems exist for the Deforestation Law to be effective.

To this end, ClientEarth recently published a third cocoa briefing on EU and UK regulations on deforestation and the social and environmental challenges facing the cocoa sector in Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana, as well as collaborating with local partners to ensure the robust implementation of the EU Deforestation Law.