Butler-Sloss & ors v Charity Commission & anr [2022] WTLR 865

Wills & Trusts Law Reports | Autumn 2022 #188

The Ashden Trust and the Mark Leonard Trust (the charities) were charitable trusts whose principal purposes were environmental protection and the relief of poverty.

The trustees of the charities sought the court’s blessing for an investment policy inspired by the Paris Climate Agreement (the Paris Agreement). The Paris Agreement’s primary objective was to limit global warming to 1.5 – 2 degrees, below pre-industrial levels, in part by reducing greenhouse gas emissions and by promoting ‘climate resilient development’.

The charities’ investment policy stood to exclude investm...