MORE lawyers are needed in the climate fight as the litigation movement against major polluters gathers pace, campaigners said today.

With a lack of regulation that would force companies and countries to comply with the Paris Agreement, activists are increasingly turning to the law to fill the vacuum.

According to Greenpeace, precedent-setting rulings by courts in multiple jurisdictions mean that the fight is getting easier.

Emerging science assessing the role of climate change in extreme weather could also spell further legal problems for governments and major corporations, it said.

Greenpeace International executive director Jennifer Morgan said that lawyers entering the climate fight would be joining a growing community that is not only taking polluters to court, but winning.

She said that attribution science, which attempts to measure the role of climate change in driving extreme weather events, is another factor that could form the basis of lawsuits.

Sophie Marjanac, head of climate accountability at the charity ClientEarth, said that the climate litigation movement is gathering pace.

“I think there is more awareness of the power of the law than ever before,” she said.

“People are fed up with policy processes that fail and so they are going to the courts, and we are seeing more wins around the world.

“Litigation is critical because where legislators aren’t stepping in to put hard rules around [emissions], litigation can fill that gap — and it will.

“Progress is slow, litigation is a slow process and it tends to follow behind social movements, but it will catch up to them eventually, and it may catch up before the politicians.”