In 2020, the International Bar Association (IBA) published its landmark Climate Crisis Statement (IBA Climate Statement), urging lawyers, acting in accordance with their professional conduct rules and the rule of law, to consider taking a climate conscious approach to problems encountered in daily legal practice; advising clients of the potential risks, liability, and reputational damage arising from activity that negatively contributes to the climate crisis; encouraging corporate clients to disclose risks posed by the climate crisis to the corporation’s operations and supply chains when reporting to regulators, investors and stakeholders; and engaging in climate dispute resolution on a pro bono or reduced fee basis, for those negatively affected by the climate crisis.^[1]

Much has happened in the five years following publication of the IBA Climate Statement:

• climate change and nature have indisputably reached a crisis point. The effects of climate change-driven extreme weather events are being felt in every corner of the world – particularly by the most vulnerable communities – and global heat records continue to be broken. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has warned that risks of species extinction or irreversible biodiversity loss are multiplying as global warming escalates, and that ‘the window of opportunity to secure a liveable and sustainable future for all is rapidly closing’. The International Energy Agency has made clear that no new fossil fuel extraction projects are needed in the transition to net zero emissions by 2050;
• demand for action by all actors to address climate change has expanded. A recent study suggests that almost 90 per cent of people around the globe want stronger political action on climate change.^[2]  Governments have collectively recognised that the world is not on track to limiting global temperature rise to 1.5ºC, and have committed to taking a number of actions at a global level including tripling global renewable energy capacity and doubling the global average annual rate of energy efficiency improvements by 2030, in addition to transitioning away from fossil fuels in energy systems;^[3]
• policies and laws to drive climate mitigation have evolved, with governments introducing; national climate change framework laws enshrining net zero and interim targets; disclosure frameworks requiring organisations to disclose strategies to address climate and nature-related risks in their operations and supply chains; regulations requiring organisations to undertake environmental and human rights due diligence; legislation requiring industrial emitters to reduce and offset their operational emissions; and frameworks for historically high corporate emitters to pay for climate adaptation infrastructure, in proportion to their contributions to climate change;
• courts across the world have reiterated climate change as a human rights issue, calling for more ambitious decarbonisation efforts by governments (for example, the European Court of Human Rights in KlimaSeniorinnen v Switzerland) and for corporations to consider negative consequences associated with fossil fuel supply (for example, in Milieudefensie et al v Royal Dutch Shell plc);
• recognition of the power of professional service providers – including lawyers – to shape and inform client decisions that affect real-economy emissions has expanded,^[4]  with providers facing increasing pressure to address the emissions associated with their services. This recognition is translating into legal risk, with lawsuits beginning to target providers on the basis of the services they provide to high-emitting clients: an accounting firm has been named as a co-defendant in Multnomah County Oregon v Exxon Mobil based on the emissions associated with its consulting services, and a complaint has been filed against an advertising firm for allegedly violating the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises on Responsible Business Conduct, asking the firm to disclose its advertised emissions and take steps to cease promoting high-polluting industries. Law firms have responded by developing tools for assessing climate impacts associated with legal advice, and legal alliances such as the Net Zero Lawyers Alliance have published roadmaps to help law firms assess climate-related risks and opportunities for their business and align their operations and matter work with net zero by 2050;
• building on the momentum created by the IBA’s Climate Statement, an increasing number of bar associations and law societies have issued public declarations committing to decarbonising their operations in alignment with the 1.5ºC temperature goal of the Paris Agreement and urging law firms and governments to do the same; have published their operational carbon footprints; and have published educational guidance for legal practitioners on how to embed climate risk into legal advice (these are highlighted in the IBA Climate Registry, and in a recent roundtable discussion with almost 50 bar association and law society representatives from around the globe). In parallel, law schools are pushing for climate change to be embedded into legal education; and
• the continual escalation of climate and nature-related risks to businesses and broader society have led organisations and academics to posit understanding of climate risk less as a ‘nice to have’ for lawyers, and more as a matter of professional competence. At the recent IBA Bar Leaders Conference in May 2025, bar association and law society representatives discussed the need for all lawyers to be able to spot potential or actual climate-related physical, transition and liability risks relevant to a particular matter; recognise where advising on such risks would fall outside of the limits of their competence or the scope of their retainer; and recommend that their client obtain expert advice where appropriate. The need for education to equip lawyers to do this was highlighted. 

In the midst of all of this continual and rapid change – affecting all aspects of the legal profession – it goes without saying that sustainability conscious approaches to lawyering are more important than ever, and that lawyers equipped with the right knowledge and skills have the power to support clients to mitigate and adapt to climate and nature-related risks, and build sustainable and resilient business strategies.

This month (June 2025) at the UNFCCC Bonn Climate Change Conference, the IBA – in collaboration with IBA committees, bar associations, law societies and civil society organisations from around the world – will convene an official side event exploring what climate change and broader sustainability challenges mean for lawyers’ professional roles in a changing geopolitical environment, and practical tools that bar associations, law firms & educational institutions can use to advance climate competence and keep the global climate agenda on track. 

The IBA Bar Issues Commission, with support from the IBA Legal Policy & Research Unit (LPRU), will also undertake a review and potential update of the IBA’s 2020 Climate Crisis Statement. This review will consider the significant regulatory and litigation developments, and increasing recognition of linkages between climate and biodiversity and human rights challenges, that have evolved in the five years since the statement was issued, as well as the significant actions taken by bar associations and law societies across the world in that period.

If you would like to learn more about the IBA and LPRU’s work to support initiatives in relation to climate change and sustainability, please contact us here.

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^[1] IBA Climate Statement, available here accessed 18 June 2025.

^[2] Peter Andre et al, ‘Globally representative evidence on the actual and perceived support for climate action’ (2024) 14 Nature Climate Change 253.  

^[3] First Global Stocktake.

^[4]Vaughan 2-3