This event marks the official launch of the 'Toolkit for Civil Society in Coastal Areas: Fostering Coastal Resilience in Europe Using Climate Litigation as an Empowering Legal Tool', produced by the Sea Legal Rise project, a collaboration between the CMCC Foundation and the Sciences Po Paris Law Clinic during the 2024–25 academic year. 

The toolkit draws on insights from climate litigation to support civil society stakeholders in navigating the evolving legal dimensions of climate change.

The document highlights key aspects that delineate the profile of this litigation, uncovering the main actors, typical legal grounds—from international to domestic and local norms—and their related claims. It also addresses court interpretations that enforce, or fail to enforce, climate obligations within a broader governance context, while engaging with procedural, substantive, systemic, and transversal obstacles encountered in cases across Europe.

A decade after the Paris Agreement, the toolkit provides a timely overview of how international climate commitments are being enforced and advanced through litigation. It explores both mitigation and adaptation objectives, with particular attention to the acute challenges facing European coastal areas threatened by rising seas, erosion, and extreme weather events that intersect with anthropogenic and social factors.            

The event will highlight the legal complexities of addressing climate impacts in coastal zones, focusing on case analyses that detail procedural issues such as standing requirements, the role of science in establishing causation links, and potential remedies related to adaptation and loss & damage.

This collaboration between CMCC Foundation and Sciences Po highlights the value of interdisciplinary knowledge, the vital role of education, and cross-sector cooperation in advancing climate resilience and addressing the complex legal questions at the heart of the climate transition.

Speakers :

• Elisa Fiorini Beckhauser, Post-doctoral researcher at the Euro-Mediterranean Center on Climate Change
• Mathilde Luna Joly, PhD candidate at the University of Bologna and Euro-Mediterranean Center on Climate Change
• Margaux Escudier, student at Sciences Po in Environmental Policy
• Eléa Daguenet

Registration is mandatory and subject to availability.