In a recent LinkedIn post, Dan Sherrard-Smith discusses how ClientEarth is using legal action to press governments and institutions on environmental protections, spotlighting the organization’s chief executive, Laura Clarke OBE. This article covers Sherrard-Smith’s post and its account of recent legal and regulatory outcomes; it is not written by Sherrard-Smith.
“They have only one client:
The Earth.”
Sherrard-Smith presents ClientEarth’s work as a case for the law’s role in climate and environmental advocacy. He describes Clarke as a leader “reshaping the fight against climate change” and points to a series of decisions and findings in Europe and the United Kingdom that, in his account, illustrate how legal challenges can prompt scrutiny of public decisions.
Legal challenges across environmental issues
The post lists five developments from 2026. They span marine conservation, pesticide approvals, industrial livestock pollution and the disclosure of environmental information. According to Sherrard-Smith, ClientEarth co-brought a case that led a Dutch court to require permits and environmental assessments for trawlers fishing in the Dogger Bank protected area.
He also points to an EU General Court ruling that the European Commission unlawfully withheld documents concerning two pesticide approvals. In the UK, Sherrard-Smith says, the environmental watchdog found that Defra had broken environmental law when it authorised a pesticide harmful to bees, following a ClientEarth complaint.
“Here’s to leaders like Laura proving the law can protect what matters.”
Other examples in the post concern Spain’s Supreme Court upholding a landmark human-rights ruling on pollution from industrial livestock farming, in a case backed by ClientEarth, and a finding by the European Ombudswoman that the Commission was wrong to conceal environmental impacts associated with mining projects. The examples involve different legal bodies and processes, but Sherrard-Smith groups them as evidence of the organization’s efforts to hold decision-makers to environmental rules.
What Sherrard-Smith’s post emphasizes
Rather than presenting a single campaign, Sherrard-Smith’s list gives readers a cross-section of ClientEarth’s approach: using courts, complaints and oversight institutions to challenge decisions. His framing places Clarke’s leadership alongside the work of lawyers and advocates behind the cases. The post does not provide detail on the full proceedings or the implications of each outcome, so it serves chiefly as a concise account of results Sherrard-Smith considers significant.
A call for continued support
Sherrard-Smith closes by looking ahead to further wins in 2027 and invites readers who want to support the organization to donate through ClientEarth’s website. He explicitly says the post is not promotional, while still directing interested readers to the charity. His central argument is that legal accountability can help protect the environment—and that leaders such as Clarke are making that case through concrete challenges to government and institutional decisions.
📝 About This Content
This article is based on insights shared by Dan Sherrard-Smith on LinkedIn.
📅 Originally posted on November 4, 2026 | View original post on LinkedIn →