10030855Climate Litigation Assessment and Support System (CLASS)ClosedSmall Business Research InitiativeInnovate UKWe propose an innovative climate litigation assessment and support system (CLASS) that helps financial institutions (FIs) to identify, avoid and manage climate litigation risk (CLR). CLASS will combine quantitative analytical tools with expert insight and support to deliver a system that is easy to use, practical and valuable. CLASS could become the go-to resource for CLR, operating in concert with existing climate risk tools and processes for physical and transition risks. CLR describes exposure to litigation because of insufficient planning for foreseeable climate impacts. CLR is creating financial and reputational impacts for FIs that outpace current capacity to manage such risks. CLASS will help FIs to overcome this deficit in capacity, improving their returns as well as the impact that they deliver. As such, CLASS is important for FIs that want to make climate resilient investments, contributing to global public goods at scale. CLASS will be built in response to the outputs of expert and FI consultation. We will draw on extensive networks among FIs and climate experts (including climate litigation experts) to gather clear input and direct feedback on a series of CLASS prototypes. We will further encourage uptake by including substantial pieces of background intellectual property in open-source release elements. We anticipate that CLR assessment processes will be offered via a free subscription. This will allow FIs to engage with CLASS and understand exposure to CLR without creating any financial or bureaucratic barriers. It will also ensure that other researchers can evaluate, endorse, and even evolve our risk assessment processes. Users would then be offered paid subscription tiers for access to CLR avoidance, mitigation, and management support, including training, expert advice, reporting templates and guidance notes. This would all be accessible via a single website. CLASS will complement existing tools for physical and transition risk -- such as Moody's, Willis Towers Watson/ Acclimatise, Planetrics -- as well as emerging research and support on CLR -- such as CGFIs work on CLR exposure. CLASS has the potential to become a regular feature of investment processes.