A Just Transition? The Role of Courts and Litigation in Achieving Net Zero Societies

In this keynote, Professor Annalisa Savaresi examines the emerging field of “just transition litigation”: legal cases that challenge the fairness and justice of policies and projects intended to advance climate action. Drawing on her research in human rights and environmental law, she outlines how these cases differ from high-profile climate litigation, often involving local communities or individuals opposing the way climate measures are implemented rather than the goals themselves.

Savaresi presents examples from forest conservation and renewable energy projects, illustrating how such initiatives can generate social tensions, human rights concerns, and legal disputes. She explains how her work, developed with international collaborators, seeks to identify patterns in these cases, analyse their legal arguments, and assess their implications for governance. The lecture underscores the importance of ensuring that climate transitions are inclusive, address affected communities’ concerns, and balance environmental ambition with social fairness.

At the University of Eastern Finland, professors’ keynote lectures are a tradition where newly appointed professors give a popular lecture on the key themes of their discipline and research at the beginning of the school year.

Dr. Annalisa Savaresi

Annalisa Savaresi is an environmental lawyer with 20 years of experience working with international, regional, and national governmental and non-governmental organisations. She earned her PhD from the Faculty of Law at the University of Copenhagen in 2013 and has since held academic positions at the University of Edinburgh (2012-2016) and the University of Stirling, where she continues to hold a part-time role.

Her academic portfolio includes over 50 peer-reviewed articles and contributions to renowned collections, such as Nature and the Max Planck Encyclopaedia of Public International Law, which have been widely cited, including by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. She has held visiting posts at the University of Bologna, the Sant’Anna School of Advanced Studies (Italy), and the University of La Sabina (Colombia). At the University of Eastern Finland (UEF), Annalisa directs the Joint Nordic Master Programme in Environmental Law and oversees CCEEL’s contributions to the Horizon Europe project RETOOL and the Jean Monnet network, GreenDeal-NET.

Annalisa serves as the Director for Europe within the Global Network on Human Rights and the Environment and has been a member of the IUCN World Commission on Environmental Law since 2009.

She has provided expert evidence to legislative bodies such as the UK, EU, and Scottish Parliaments and currently sits on the Board of Environmental Standards Scotland, established under the UK Withdrawal from the European Union (Continuity) (Scotland) Act 2021, overseeing public authorities’ compliance with environmental law in Scotland.