Despite growing scientific consensus on climate and environmental challenges and extensive regulatory developments in recent years, the implementation and enforcement of ESG accountability frameworks face significant headwinds globally. Companies operating cross-border projects confront conflicting ESG standards, extraterritorial regulations, and asymmetric enforcement regimes, whilst states grapple with the limits of traditional policy tools in driving meaningful corporate accountability. Simultaneously, ESG-related litigation is emerging as a powerful enforcement mechanism, with courts increasingly called upon to adjudicate climate obligations, supply chain due diligence failures and greenwashing claims.

Against this background, this session explores ESG accountability from four complementary perspectives: international normative frameworks, state-level mechanisms, corporate obligations and judicial enforcement.