A clutch of high-profile legal cases over responsibility for the effects of climate change will be fought out in courtrooms next year as claims stack up against both governments and some of the world's biggest oil and energy companies.
Lawsuits in the United States brought by young activists and several Californian cities are most likely to make waves, but legal action by a Peruvian farmer in Germany and Greenpeace in Norway could also cause ripples, said lawyers and academics.
"There is a trend toward more litigation around climate change, and probably the lack of political action in the United States may increase that trend," said Sophie Marjanac, a London-based lawyer at the nonprofit environmental law group ClientEarth.