Big Oil is facing A A new analysis shows a growing number of lawsuits focused on climate. This is a sign of it More communities are demanding accountability for the industry’s contribution to the climate crisis.
For the report, released Thursday, Oil Change International and climate research organization Zero Carbon Analytics pulled data from a Columbia University database that focuses on cases in which the world’s 25 largest fossil fuel producers have been named as defendants. are
According to the authors, the number of cases filed each year against these companies globally has nearly tripled since 2015 – the year the UN climate agreement was signed in Paris.
David Tong, campaign director at research and advocacy group Oil Change International, which worked on the report, said: “No major oil and gas company is committing to doing the bare minimum to prevent climate chaos, so communities are taking them to court. ” .
The lawsuits have been filed by cities, states and other government agencies, as well as environmental groups, indigenous tribes and individuals. 50 cases have been filed in US courts, 24 cases in European countries, five cases in Australia and four cases in Nigeria.
The authors found that the largest growth in lawsuits was related to complaints seeking compensation for weather damages, which accounted for 38 percent of cases. Since 2015, thirty-three such cases have been filed, of which 30 have been filed since 2017. Noah Walker-Crawford, a researcher at the university, said the main reason for the increase in cases is that “the science has just gotten a lot better”. The London School of Economics’ Grantham Institute said in a press call on Tuesday.
Walker Crawford, who did not work on the report, explained that attribution science allows scientists to “more accurately link specific extreme weather events to climate change” as well as climate effects attributable to specific greenhouse gases. Determine fossil fuel companies.
No fossil fuel company has yet been forced to pay for climate damages, but the potential liabilities are huge, with previous reports estimating that the sector’s biggest polluters are responsible for trillions of dollars in lost homes, livelihoods and infrastructure.
The most high-profile climate damage case was brought by a Peruvian farmer in 2015 against energy giant RWE, which he accuses of contributing to climate impacts that threaten his home in the Andes. In an unprecedented move in 2022, German judges visited Peru to determine the extent of damages caused by RWE, which is also Europe’s largest emitter of greenhouse gases. RWE did not respond to a request for comment.
In the United States, lawsuits seeking climate damages also accuse defendants of creating skepticism about the climate crisis despite long-standing knowledge of the planet-warming effects of their products.
Report The authors noted an increase in other types of climate-related litigation, including challenges to allegedly misleading advertising. Such suits today account for 16 percent of climate complaints against big oil companies and are “a winning legal tactic,” the authors wrote. 9 cases have been concluded and the judges have voted in favor of the accused only in one case.
about 12 percent of climate complaints in the analysis were filed against fossil fuel companies for failing to implement plans to reduce greenhouse gas emissions that align with the Paris climate agreement. A landmark ruling in 2021, in which a Dutch court ordered Shell to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 45 percent by 2030, was issued in response to one such lawsuit. Shell declined to comment.
Ryan Myers, senior vice president of the American Petroleum Institute’s fossil fuel lobbying group, said the study describes a concerted and ongoing campaign to wage reckless and political lawsuits against a fundamental American industry and its workers, calling the efforts “little more than a distraction.” of important national conversations and a huge waste of taxpayers’ resources”.
New types of climate litigation are also emerging. This year, victims of climate disasters and non-governmental organizations filed the world’s first climate criminal complaint. in France against the CEO and directors of the French oil company TotalEnergies; It alleges that the defendants contributed to the deaths of victims of weather-related disasters. TotalEnergies did not respond to a request for comment.
This analysis does not take into account all climate-related lawsuits filed worldwide. Other complaints target companies that operate in other parts of the fossil fuel supply chain, such as pipeline companies, and others challenge governments for pro-fossil fuel policies.
Michael Gerard, director of the Sabine School of Climate Change Law at Columbia University, who did not work on the analysis, said that while the fossil fuel industry faces “a significant number of cases,” “none of them are broken.” Except for some that are focused on advertising. But he added that the coming years “may bring important and possibly decisive developments in this campaign” and that new legal theories are being developed.
Tong of Oil Change International said the lawsuits “will not solve the climate crisis alone,” but they can be an important means of holding polluters accountable.
“The growing number of lawsuits against fossil fuel companies shows how their historic and continuing role in driving and profiting from climate change is closing in on them,” he said.
#Big #oil #facing #growing #number #climatefocused #lawsuits #report #shows