We find that about half of Americans (53%) think global warming is harming their local community either a moderate amount or a great deal. Fewer think global warming is harming their community only a little (19%) or not at all (16%). If so, it will represent a new legal theory based on fraud. October 19, 2022 / 7:27 AM / CBS/AP Jersey City New Jersey officials announced a lawsuit Tuesday against five oil and gas companies and a petroleum trade organization, alleging they had. This tool maps variations in Americans' opinions about existing or potential lawsuits against fossil fuel companies. Additionally, summed response categories (e.g., strongly support + somewhat support) are rounded after sums are calculated (e.g., 25.3% + 25.3% = 50.6%, which, after rounding would appear in a chart as 25% + 25% = 51%). This means that in these four lawsuits, the cases will proceed in state court and under state law. ", Tracy asked, "Some of these internal memos from the company acknowledge uncertainty about this. Business & Human Rights Resource Centre Registered Charity in England & Wales no. Half of Americans (50%) support their local officials filing a liability lawsuit against fossil fuel companies whose products contribute to climate change. ", Lazarus said even if the cities and states prove the fossil fuel companies deceived the public about climate change, it doesn't necessarily mean they will win: "They've done a really good job of showing that the oil and gas industry, I think, engaged in fraudulent activity. First published on April 17, 2022 / 9:50 AM. The appearance of such links does not constitute endorsement of the websites they lead to or the information contained therein, over which we exercise no editorial control. The challenge will be causation, to prove that their fraudulent behavior is what prevented the United States from passing the laws we needed to reduce those greenhouse gas emissions.". Exxon Mobil has previously dismissed such research as the work of anti-oil activists. Supran wrote that the research will continue to aid congressional investigations and state, county, and city lawsuits against fossil fuel companies for "their decades of climate damages, denial . They allege that the companies knew about the impacts of their greenhouse gas emissions on climate change and failed to act. While Energy Transfer's RICO claims against the organization have been dismissed, the pipeline company filed a second lawsuit in North Dakota state court, which is scheduled for trial in June 2023. The federal district court for the Southern District of New York dismissed New York City's lawsuit seeking to hold oil and gas companies liable for climate change harms. The city of Charleston filed a lawsuit Wednesday in state court against two dozen major oil and pipeline companies, alleging their products and the spread of misinformation about fossil fuels have . The case centers around claims against the company under the states Martin Act, which gives the New York attorney general broad powers to challenge corporate actions that defraud investors. But in the meantime, the water keeps rising. The cases make a variety of arguments about why fossil fuel companies bear. Two federal courts agreed with that argument and dismissed cases brought by San Francisco, Oakland and New York City. As a result, percentages in a given chart may total slightly higher or lower than 100%. Original article by Ken Kimmell and published by Union of Concerned Scientists. We hoped, too, that in the long run, the lawsuits might provide funding for communities ill-equipped to pay for the enormous impending costs of climate change. Sign up or text "SCIENCE" to 67369. And now, many cities and states are asking, who's going to pay for all of this? Union of Concerned Scientists Posted in: "The water is our greatest asset; it has also become our biggest challenge.". The legal developments are thus all the more welcome for the prospect that they can change company behavior and finally help hold these companies accountable for the climate damage they have wrought. Why does this matter? And internationally, . "Because the fact is, that they knew with a fair degree of certainty that there could be serious catastrophic effects from the continued use of fossil fuels. She noted that. While fossil fuel companies have been fighting to have these lawsuits moved to federal court, where they expect more favorable judgments, state courts will rightly hear these cases locally, where the concerns of residents are front and center. The fact that scientists have questions about their data is unremarkable; that's what scientists do. October 23, 2019. Until recently, the litigation has been mired in procedural mattersbut we're beginning to see significant progress. Delaware, the home state of Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden, announced on Thursday, September 10 that it is taking dozens of major oil and gas companies including BP, Chevron, and ExxonMobil to court over the rising costs of climate impacts such as sea level rise and coastal flooding. Some point to a 1992 video, backed primarily by the coal industry, promoting the benefits of pumping more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. ", Tracy asked, "The attorneys in some of these cases, though, would say that what they're doing is trying to hold these companies liable for deception. By continuing, you accept our use of cookies. Organizers of the. The new lawsuits join a growing number of California communities that have filed suit against oil and gas companies to hold them accountable for their role in driving climate change. Connecticut then followed with a lawsuit singularly targeting ExxonMobil, which remains one of the largest oil companies in the world and appears determined to double down on its core fossil fuel business despite knowing decades ago about the climate consequences of using its products. I expect the companies to work hard to resist this disclosure of documents and internal information; so far they have already used their vast legal and financial resources to try to intimidate elected officials and advocacy groups, including ours. Several climate change lawsuits against fossil fuel companies and governments are now proceeding to trial and one suit may even yield a verdict soon. Reply STOP to cancel. New York's lawsuit was initially dismissed in federal court and the City is appealing. This fall, the U.S. Drought Monitor classified the entire state as in drought. Internal documents said the goal of their advertising campaign was to "Reposition global warming as theory (not fact). Hiring across the U.S. remained strong in October, Trump mulling 2024 announcement in weeks after midterms, sources say, Reports: Twitter set to lay off roughly half its staff, South Korea scrambles jets after spotting 180 North Korean warplanes, University of Chicago issues warning about students being drugged at parties, Man's 411-day COVID infection finally cured with drugs given to Trump, Selena Gomez opens up about bipolar disorder and psychosis. asked Tracy. At the time, many, includingme, hoped these legal actions would reveal the truth about climate deception and create leverage to persuade these companies to get out of the business of opposing necessary governmental climate solutions. The fossil fuel companies argue that cases against them should be heard in federal court in part because they were issued leases by the federal government, which they say qualifies them as "federal officers." . If so, it will represent a new legal theory based on fraud. Do you wish to stay up to date on our News and Events? Federal Court Dismissed New York City's Lawsuit Against Fossil Fuel Companies. While several US states and cities have filed lawsuits against fossil fuel companies for "greenwashing" in recent years, three environmental groups took a different route in March when they launched a landmark lawsuit against Chevron Corp. They are seeking compensation for the current and future costs of adapting to the consequences of climate change, such as sea level rises. Baltimore City Solicitor Andre Davis said his office will vigorously fight for the city to protect the port and . Climate science has found that the burning of fossil fuels (coal, oil, and natural gas) produced by fossil fuel companies is causing global warming. Then, in March 2020, the city and county of Honolulu joined fifteen other communities and one trade association suing fossil fuel companies for climate damages. Although we have seen some statements of support by fossil fuel companies for policies such as anational carbon fee and dividend, and even some thoughtfuldeep decarbonization scenarios, the industry for the most part continues to fight vigorously against climate policies, such as recently spending$30million to defeat a carbon tax initiative in Washington state. Jan. 8, 2018: Exxon asks a Texas court to grant a discovery order allowing the company to question officials in counties and cities suing. Get news on the go with KHON 2GO, KHON's morning podcast, every morning at 8 In October 2020, Maui County filed a lawsuit against 20 fossil fuel companies for the rising costs and impacts. Story produced by Dustin Stephens. Is that fair? Supreme Court Case Could Limit Future Lawsuits Against Fossil Fuel Industry The court heard arguments on a technical legal question in a case that demands fossil fuel companies help. Statoil pointed out that previous lawsuits of this type had been dismissed for being a political, not a judicial, issue. Research by the London School of Economics Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the . April 19, 2022. The Massachusetts suit focuses on deception to investors regarding the proxy cost of carbon, similar to the New York suit, but expands the suit to include new claims of deception to consumers. Deputy Director of Climate and Energy, Meghan Hassett Text "SCIENCE" to 67369 or sign up online. Similarly, internal pharmaceutical company documents about the opioid epidemic are now coming to light through litigation. Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window), Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window), A Roman Catholic Spirituality to Care for Creation, Declaration and Call to Action to Care for Creation, The Roundtable Association of Catholic Diocesan Social Action Directors, Ecumenical and Interreligious Guidebook: Care for Our Common Home, An Overview, Care for Our Common Home Interreligious Dialogue, Care for Our Common Home Ecumenical Dialogue. This from @amywestervelt and @mathsavage is a great overview of the 20+ local govt plaintiffs, the legal arguments, where the cases standand why Big Oil is running scared. Since publication, a number of cases have progressed and new lawsuits have been filed. But on Wednesday, New York's lawsuit, alleging the company mislead investors, is set to go to trial in state . In it, Dr. Sherwood Idso states, "A doubling of the CO2 content of the atmosphere will produce a tremendous greening of Planet Earth. It claimed in a marketing campaign that it could reach net-zero carbon emissions by 2050 while still. We are a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. On Tuesday, October 22, New Yorks trial against ExxonMobil begins. The News Journal writes that Delaware's attorney general has also launched a lawsuit against 31 fossil fuel companies, ranging from Chevron to BP. A studypublished by Nature Climate Changein June found that, across 73 lawsuits targeting the fossil fuel industry, no significant attempt to clearly establish that climate change had caused ecological breakdown had been made. "In the next 50 years we'll see another two to three feet of sea level rise," Tecklenburg said. "And that chart is almost exactly right.". "The federal government has had the very same information that they're saying that the energy companies had going back to the 1960s and '70s and '80s. A federal appeals court on Tuesday ruled that climate lawsuits filed by a half-dozen California municipalities seeking to hold fossil fuel corporations accountable for damages they knowingly caused should proceed in state court. 2022 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved. Nearly four years ago, the state attorneys general of New York and Massachusetts launched investigations of ExxonMobil for climate change deception; since 2017, several municipalities have filed lawsuits against major fossil fuel companies seeking damages for the costs of climate change adaptation and resilience. The world's most polluting companies are increasingly being targeted by lawsuits challenging their inaction on climate change and attempts to spread misinformation, according to a new report. Receive urgent alerts about opportunities to defend science. Global warming, in turn, results in more extreme weather, droughts, wildfires, and flooding from sea level rise. Alongside its core work providing a platform for Human Rights advocates, the Resource Centre runs several focused programme areas and regularly releases briefings and reports on areas of particular interest. Charleston is one of more than two dozen cities, counties and states that are suing these companies (including ExxonMobil, Shell, Chevron, BP and ConocoPhillips). Toxic smog turns India's capital "into a gas chamber", Climate change lawsuits: Taking fossil fuel firms to court. Tecklenburg said, "I feel if you've contributed to the problem, that you should contribute to the solution.". Unless the fossil fuel companies are successful in getting a federal appeals court or the US Supreme Court to put a hold on these cases (which seems unlikely), the plaintiffs will eventually be able to conduct discovery, which is likely to include requests for documents and depositions of fossil fuel company executives to find out sensitive matters such as: 1) when did the companies know that emissions from their products were causing global warming; 2) to what extent does their internal knowledge diverge from what the companies were saying publicly about climate science and climate change? The case centers around claims against the company under the states Martin Act, which gives the New York attorney general broad powers to challenge corporate actions that defraud investors. Correspondent Ben Tracy asked, "Can you raise taxes high enough to cover these costs?". Yale Research Team: Jennifer Marlon, Xinran Wang, Abel Gustafson, Matthew Ballew, Matthew Goldberg, Seth Rosenthal, Anthony Leiserowitz, This research was supported by the Union of Concerned Scientists. Underneath one of those rocks are the fossil fuel companies. The pressure brought on so many fronts through this litigation may already be having an effect on the companies and on publicopinion, but it is critical to keep it up. This section contains a selection of key portals curated by our global team. In addition to these existing lawsuits, another big one appears to be on the way. For tabulation purposes, percentage points are rounded to the nearest whole number. Because of that, we could be witnessing a pivotal moment in these cases. RT @_MikeMeno: Want to understand climate accountability lawsuits against fossil fuel companies? ", And an on-camera host declares, "As more and more scientists are confirming, our world is deficient in carbon dioxide.". This means that in these four lawsuits, the cases will proceed in state court and under state law. The case centers around claims against the company under the state's "Martin Act," which gives the New York attorney general broad powers to challenge corporate actions that defraud investors. Climate scientists say the burning of fossil fuels (coal, oil, and natural gas) is causing global warming, which results in more extreme weather, droughts, wildfires, and flooding from sea level rise. Last year, Italy's competition authority fined energy giant Eni SpA 5 million euros ($5.94 million) for ads claiming that its diesel was "green" and helped the environment. As a result, the lawsuit claims, communities in Hawai'i are now facing increased flooding, more extreme weather . (2019) Majority of Americans think fossil fuel companies are responsible for the damages caused by global warming. The California lawsuits are part of a wave of litigation against fossil fuel companies, alleging they not only contributed to climate change but actively worked to discredit climate science and . Published Feb 23, 2021 The City of Annapolis has filed suit against Exxon, BP, Chevron, Shell, the American Petroleum Institute and more than 20 other fossil fuel companies for knowingly contributing to climate change, which has already caused the city to incur significant costs due to sea level rise. Tracy asked Mayor John Tecklenburg, "If you're not successful with this lawsuit, what does that mean for what you're trying to do here?". In addition, 57% of the public supports making fossil fuel companies pay for a portion of the damages to local communities caused by carbon pollution from burning fossil fuels. Baltimore was one of the first places to file a lawsuit seeking damages from fossil fuel companies. The total sample size was 5,131, with an average margin of error of +/- 1 percentage points at the 95% confidence level. The pressure brought on so many fronts through this litigation may already be having an effect on the companies and on public opinion, but it is critical to keep it up. The cities' case uses a slightly different strategy than a lawsuit filed in July by San Mateo and Marin Counties and the city of Imperial Beach against 37 fossil fuel companies for their role in sea level rise. Opinion pieces, interviews and blogs from across the business and human rights movement. We use cookies to improve your experience. The Minnesota Attorney General followed on June 24, filing a lawsuit in state court against ExxonMobil, Koch Industries, and the American Petroleum Institute (API). (An excellent summary of this litigation, is availablehere). If that lawsuit is filed, it appears that it will be based on the states unfair and deceptive practices act, a broad law that allows the state attorney general (and private parties) to sue when a company commits fraud or other related wrongful practices. ", Climate change costs cotton farmers billions, Climate change measures on the line in the 2022 midterms, Major glaciers will be gone by 2050 due to climate change, U.N. warns, Europe temperatures increased more than twice global average, report says, "The Rule of Five," on arguing climate change before the Supreme Court, Mayor John Tecklenburg, Charleston, South Carolina, William Tong, Attorney General of Connecticut, "The Rule of Five: Making Climate History at the Supreme Court". Perhaps most importantly, several companies have not even taken the most basic steps to put their own houses in order. You're browsing our English site, so by default we are only showing content in English. 4:20 Gov. Let's downplay the fact of climate change,'" Tong said. You must be a registered member to view the CADEIO Care for Creation directory. Rhode Island's case had been cleared to advance in state court, which the fossil fuel companies are challenging. I expect the companies to work hard to resist this disclosure of documents and internal information; so far they have already used their vast legal and financial resources to try to intimidate elected officials and advocacy groups, including ours. Fossil Fuel Giants Seek Billions From European Countries Under Secretive Treaty Fossil fuel companies in Europe are using an international treaty signed nearly three decades ago to challenge several governments' ability to take climate actionexemplifying why, critics said Monday, the 1994 Energy Charter Treaty is a major impediment to transitioning away from planet-heating fossil fuels and . And Britain's. One of a series of 1991 newspaper ads from the Information Council for the Environment, an energy industry group. a hypothetical price on carbon which it added to its cost estimates for business investments). "This is a strategy document from ExxonMobil that basically says, 'Let's lie. Instead of acting to reduce. 2 Brattle Square, Cambridge MA 02138, USA Find out more about our impact, who we are and how we are funded. Richmond, California has become the ninth city in less than a year to bring major fossil fuel companies to court over climate change. The counties' lawsuit makes claims of both public nuisance and negligence against the companies. Our 2018 Corporate Legal Accountability Annual Briefing Turning up the heat: Corporate legal accountability for climate change provides an in-depth analysis of these lawsuits and examines the opportunities and challenges for This conflict between the publicly disclosed and privately applied carbon price could have misled investors into believing that ExxonMobil was factoring in the social cost of carbon when making business investment decisions, when it actually was using an artificially lower price that, for example, inflated the value of risky assets such as tar sand holdings in Canada. / CBS News. October 23, 2019, Original article by Ken Kimmell and published by Union of Concerned Scientists. The oil and gas companies targeted by the lawsuits had argued that the matter should be transfered to federal courts. We are a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. ", ExxonMobil, which is named in all 24 of these lawsuits, says, "The claims are baseless and without merit.". William Tong, attorney general of Connecticut, said, "I'm suing ExxonMobil because they lied to us.". in Germany (VR 38088 B). Principal Climate Scientist, Adam Markham In May 2020, the 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the District Court's decision to remand the case to state courts. Federal District Court Judge Derrick K. Watson ruled in County of Maui v. Cultural Heritage Loss and Damage Goes Ignored. A blog on science, politics, and activism. Although we have seen some statements of support by fossil fuel companies for policies such as a national carbon fee and dividend, and even some thoughtful deep decarbonization scenarios, the industry for the most part continues to fight vigorously against climate policies, such as recently spending $30 million to defeat a carbon tax initiative in Washington state.
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