United States onlyApplication Guidelines:
- A proposal (no more than 2 pages) indicating how you would approach the project and how your skills and experience would contribute to a successful project
- A resume or CV for key members to be involved in the project
Deadline for submission: June 9, 2024
Project Overview
Prime Coalition is looking to explore the current trends, barriers, and impact opportunities in the climate litigation finance market. Climate litigation is an emerging field that describes the practice of bringing forth a legal case involving climate and the environment as part of the subject matter before a judicial or quasi-judicial body. There is now documented evidence of the growth of climate litigation as a practice. Around two-thirds of the cases in the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law at Columbia University’s climate litigation databases were filed after the signing of the Paris Agreement in 2019, demonstrating an uptick in recent years. As the field continues to grow, the range of claimants, defendants, and causes of action has evolved.
Some evidence points to the existence of gaps in the funding landscape for climate litigation. For instance, there appears to be more activity among civil society actors (e.g., environmental NGOs) bringing actions against government entities than actions against corporations, where activity to date has been minimal and largely limited to public interest advocacy led or civil society groups and government lawyers. Furthermore, litigation against corporations that seek not only restitution of the claimant’s losses, but also punitive damages that encourage more climate-aligned business practices, appears to be underrepresented. On the whole, early research suggests that further de-risking and standardization of practices could also help make climate litigation more accessible to a broader set of (underrepresented) claimants and stakeholders, particularly by reducing the upfront costs and resources required to strengthen the evidence and plausibility of new, innovative cases (i.e., via preparatory financing).
Prime is looking to bring on a contractor to help understand the challenges and opportunities in this market. The contractor will deliver a final presentation and report that outlines the current shortcomings to climate litigation finance, the types of climate impact outcomes enabled through effective climate litigation, and the set of opportunities for catalytic investment providers to help address those gaps. The research should explore the current state of climate litigation finance, including an analysis of the active funders and investment mechanisms, and more notably, identify the gaps or sections of the market that are not being addressed. The research should highlight those key trends via the exploration of case studies, helping to create clarity around the types of climate impact outcomes enabled through successful litigation. Finally, the research should recommend the potential role(s) of catalytic capital in the broader climate litigation finance stack, drawing out the benefits and limitations of catalytic capital sources in advancing the field of climate litigation finance.
Project goals
- Provide current market analysis and industry insights on the state of climate litigation finance, including key actors/funders and investment mechanisms.
- Determine how catalytic capital could achieve impact as part of the climate litigation finance stack, including recommendations on the potential role for Prime Coalition to pursue an impact-first investment thesis for a climate litigation fund.
Illustrative research questions:
- What is the investment need and/or capital gap for climate litigation?
- What climate outcomes can climate litigation enable or accelerate?
- How could the near-term outcomes of climate litigation - be it damages, regulation, fines - lead to large-scale emissions reduction or other types of positive climate impact?
- How could these outcomes meaningfully improve human thriving for underserved communities or populations?
- How could a catalytic capital intervention help fill or meet the identified capital gap, relative to other types of public or private resources and capital?
- What are the different mechanisms or pathways for a catalytic capital provider to advance climate litigation finance?
Proposed project phases and objectives:
Phase 0: Contractor onboarding and project management kick-off (1 week)
- Align on key project management items, including timeline, scope of work, and deliverables
- Identification of core project team members from each organization
- Determine whether additional stakeholders should be involved via advisory group or other mechanism
Phase 1: Knowledge sharing and research phase design (1-2 weeks)
- Establish shared understanding of key terms and research concepts
- Outline and develop research materials, including a proposed outreach plan, list of key stakeholders, and research guide(s)
- Identify and summarize secondary research sources as input for framing research scope and priorities
Phase 2: Core research period and development of findings (4-6 weeks)
- Engage and conduct interviews with practitioners and other key stakeholders to explore existing approaches and challenges with climate litigation finance
- Define key pathways for advancing the intended impact outcomes of climate litigation, relying on a few (3-5) case studies to demonstrate a range of approaches
- Develop framework for thinking through the role of catalytic capital in the climate litigation finance stack, including benefits and limitations of impact-first capital approaches
Phase 3: Presentation of findings and recommendations (1-2 weeks)
- Synthesize research findings into a report, providing a framework for understanding current approaches and the potential role for a catalytic capital intervention among them
- Present recommendations for whether Prime could / should pursue an investment thesis for a climate litigation fund, based on research findings and ongoing conversations with Prime
Project Budget:$10,000.00
Illustrative budget breakdown:
Phase
Description
Estimated share of effort
Estimated cost
0
Contractor onboarding and project management kick-off
5%
$500.00
1
Knowledge sharing and research phase design
15%
$1,500.00
2
Core research period and development of findings
60%
$6,000.00
3
Presentation of findings and recommendations
