Concerned about climate change but don’t know how you can use your expertise to assist?

22/07/2022

The Australian Pro Bono Centre has launched the Global Pro Bono Climate Action Portal, a source of information and inspiration for barristers and lawyers alike who are looking for ways to address the climate crisis through pro bono work.

The Portal contains regularly updated and compelling case studies highlighting the legal pro bono work being undertaken in Australia and internationally to tackle climate change. The case studies are organised around 15 categories of pro bono work, which include:

• Undertaking strategic climate litigation
• Providing legal support to those disproportionately affected by the climate crisis, including climate activists, natural disaster victims, Indigenous peoples and people displaced by climate change
• Developing or reviewing climate clauses for use in commercial transactions
• Providing community legal education
• Establishing or assisting with a university climate justice clinic, and
• Making law reform submissions and conducting legal research.

The Portal was developed in conjunction with and is hosted by PILnet, an international NGO based in in Budapest, New York and Hong Kong, harnessing public interest and private sector lawyers to work for civil society.

The Portal is a source of inspiration about the ways you can use your experience and expertise as a barrister to combat climate change on a pro bono basis. It builds on the success of the Centre’s 2020 Pro Bono Guide to the Climate Crisis by featuring an evolving range of case studies from a larger number of countries to inspire and inform the global legal profession.

What you can do

• Review the Portal for ideas as to how you can use your expertise to turn your concern into concrete action.
• If you’re already involved in climate pro bono – submit a case study of your pro bono work for inclusion on the Portal via the Submit a Case Study function.
• Tell your friends and colleagues about the Portal. It’s a good news story about lawyers working across the globe, as well as a motivating source of ideas.

To discuss any aspect of this work, please contact the Australian Pro Bono Centre at info@probonocentre.org.au.

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