New partnership launches AI-powered global climate law and policy database
The Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment at the London School of Economics, the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law at Columbia University, and Climate Policy Radar are delighted to announce a new partnership to offer upgraded open data resources on global climate laws, policies and legal cases.
The collaboration will bring together the partners’ world-leading databases on global climate law - the Grantham Research Institute’s Climate Change Laws of the World and the Sabin Center’s Global Climate Litigation Database - and enhance them with artificial intelligence-powered features developed by tech startup Climate Policy Radar.
The partners are launching these revamped online resources to strengthen understanding of climate legislation, policy and litigation. For the first time, users will be able to search the complete text of thousands of climate law, policy and litigation documents from every country. (Previously, search functionality was limited to document summaries only.)
The new search function saves time by automatically highlighting relevant parts of documents, making it easier to find information about laws and policies worldwide. Users will also be able to search documents that are published in any language, opening up documents and resources that were previously inaccessible due to language barriers.
About the databases
The Climate Change Laws of the World Database is the most comprehensive global resource on climate law and policy. The database includes national-level climate change related legislation and policies from nearly every country in the world, including detailed summaries and the full text of the legislation and supporting documents. The database builds on more than a decade of data collection led by the Grantham Research Institute and supported by numerous partners, including the Sabin Center.
The Global Climate Change Litigation database, launched by the Sabin Center in 2009 and maintained by it ever since, contains information about climate lawsuits worldwide, including the full text of pleadings, briefs, decisions, and other documents. Its development is supported by a network of more than 100 rapporteurs reporting on more than 100 countries and jurisdictions, along with several institutional partners, including the Grantham Research Institute.
Climate Policy Radar is developing artificial intelligence technology that can automatically ‘read’, extract and share useful information from the documents contained within these databases. We are also building AI-based text classification models to identify climate and policy concepts in the documents. This new functionality, once complete, will enable advanced analysis and modelling at a global scale, making it easier to spot patterns and highlight action gaps across jurisdictions.
The Grantham Institute’s Climate Change Laws of the World database will be available first. The Sabin Center’s Global Climate Change Litigation database will be available in the coming months.
By turning documents into searchable, accessible and useful information, the partnership aims to support and advance global research efforts to understand climate laws, policies and litigation. The resources offered are free and open, contributing to greater transparency, accountability and equity.
Professor Elizabeth Robinson, Director of the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment, LSE, said: “By merging technological and academic expertise, this partnership is allowing us to enhance our ability to produce comprehensive, in-depth analysis of climate policies, law and litigation from around the world.
“We look forward to progressing this further, and to continue to leverage cutting-edge technology to advance climate action at the forefront of the climate policy sphere.”
Michael Burger, Executive Director of the Sabin Center and Senior Research Scholar at Columbia Law School, said: “These two databases are among the most widely recognized and widely used online resources in the field. With these upgrades, we will be able to offer government officials, climate advocates, corporate lawyers, researchers at all levels, and everyone else free access to advanced databases that can help improve knowledge, foster creative thinking, accelerate climate law and policy research, and uncover the best routes forward to address the climate crisis.”
Dr Michal Nachmany, CEO of Climate Policy Radar, said: “By unlocking the vast potential of climate law and policy data, we hope this work will act as a catalyst for the generation of novel and important insights on trends and developments in climate change law and policy, building the evidence base needed to shape ambitious and effective climate action.”
View a preview of the enhanced features. They will be available across Climate Change Laws of the World very soon.
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