Banks are no real-economy actors, but they do face a very real risk of climate liability.
Indirectly, because of the litigation impending on clients with greenhouse gas-intensive activities and products.
Directly, because banks may fail their own legal duty to actively reduce their (financed) emissions. This latter risk is particularly relevant to many banks considering their mostly inadequate transition plans.
In their article in the August/September edition of Butterworths Journal of International Banking and Financial Law, Pim Heemskerk and Roger Cox analyse how the concept of climate liability may apply to banks.
The article is freely accessible, please click here (English).
The article references an earlier article on the influence of sustainability legislation on banks’ climate liability in the Dutch Monthly Journal of Property Law. Also this article is freely accessible, please click here (English and Dutch).
