The Surrey Centre for International and Environmental Law inaugural Annual Lecture 2026.

The Surrey Centre for International and Environmental Law is delighted to welcome Sarah Finch, winner of the 2026 Goldman Environmental Prize for Europe, for its inaugural Annual Lecture.

Sarah led the landmark legal challenge against Surrey County Council over oil drilling near Gatwick Airport on behalf of the Weald Action Group. In a historic judgment, the UK Supreme Court ruled that the climate impact of burning the oil, including its downstream greenhouse-gas emissions, had to be considered in the project’s environmental impact assessment.

As proposals for new oil and gas extraction, energy-intensive data centres and other major developments place growing pressure on the environment, protecting environmental rights has never been more important.

This public lecture and discussion will explore how environmental law can:

Hold governments, public authorities and powerful interests to account;

Strengthen democratic oversight of environmental decision-making;

Give communities a meaningful voice in decisions affecting them;

Protect environmental rights during the climate and ecological crises;

Help build a genuinely participatory environmental democracy

Drawing on her experience of taking a locally rooted campaign to the UK’s highest court, Sarah will reflect on the relationship between activism, law and democratic accountability, and what her landmark case means for future environmental decisions and litigation.

The lecture will be followed by a chaired discussion with Prof. Maria Lee (UCL Laws) and Robin Pierro (CEO of the Environmental Law Foundation) and audience Q&A.

Organiser: Feja Lesniewska

Contact: f.lesniewska@surrey.ac.uk

Description supplied by the event organiser.