NEWS

ILFR: Biodiversity litigation set to take off

8th August 2022

Read the full article from IFLR

Therium Founder and CIO, Neil Purslow has been quoted by the International Financial Law Review (IFLR) in an article on how the expected rise in ESG litigation will provide an extra enforcement tool to increase accountability for environmental crimes.

IFLR highlights increased regulatory scrutiny and an expected increase in biodiversity legislation and. Whilst litigation being brought enforcement action against corporates and governments whose actions have resulted in a biodiversity loss has historically been low across Europe, a rise in class actions is expected.

In the article, Neil Purslow explains the importance of litigation and litigation funding as “the pointy end of the enforcement spear.” For example, Therium funds securities fraud litigation based on legislation that aims to protect investors against firms that engage in poor corporate governance resulting in a stock drop.

With regulatory scrutiny surrounding greenwashing on the rise, Neil explains that specific environmental litigation is likely to mirror other forms of securities litigation. In this case, environmental crimes as opposed to financial crimes become the focus of a compliance breach that has caused investors to suffer losses.