This story was originally published in High Country News, and is now part of the Climate Desk Collaboration. Climate activists, local communities, and states have been turning to litigation in recent years to seek climate justice. The 2023 United States Congress is the least productive of the decade. The federal government’s failure to respond to the climate crisis has inspired
This article, which is a part of the Climate Desk collaboration, was first published by High Country News.
Weather activists, regional communities, and states have recently turned to litigation in an effort to obtain climate justice. The federal government’s lack of response to the climate crisis has inspired a slew of court cases seeking to hold polluters guilty and encourage policy change. The 2023 United States Congress was the least successful of the decade.
In the past five years, the number of climate court cases in the US has doubled, and next year, more than 100 were filed. According to Delta Merner, the principal scientist at the Science Hub for Climate Litigation and the Union of Concerned Scientists,” 2024 is definitely a key moment for climate litigation in the American US.” This new year is not going to be any different. ” A number of ground-breaking cases will be moving through the courts.”
The results of the cases that follow could have a big impact on policy, business accountability, and decarbonization initiatives. Below are four climate lawsuits that should be monitored in the West in 2024.
EPA v. Genesis B.
Details: 18 children in California are suing the US Environmental Protection Agency, alleging that by failing to mitigate the effects of climate change, the agency violated their legal rights. The lawsuit was filed by Our Children’s Trust, a volunteer law firm that is responsible for some youth-led climate cases.
What’s second: A judge ruled in August that state laws requiring state agencies to disregard climate impacts when approving fossil fuel projects violated the Montana Constitution in the landmark youth-led climate change case Held v. Montana. The case served as a significant example for the growing field of democratic climate law.
Additionally, according to Merner, the Held decision” set a standard and understanding that the state of climate science is very strong, that it’s indisputable, and that courts can understand the science. The science will prevail in important decisions.”
The Held v. Montana decision strengthens the case that government policies can violate citizens ‘ legal rights to a safe and healthy environment, even though it has some quick ramifications. Even though only a few states have this constitutional provision, cases in California and another states could more uphold that precedent.
As states are required to take climate impacts into account, Chris Winter, executive director of the Getches-Wilkinson Center for Natural Resources, Energy, and the Environment at the University of Colorado Law School, said that” the practical implication is to accelerate the transition away from the extraction of fossil fuels.”
Young plaintiffs are even claiming that state or national policies violated their constitutional rights to a clean and healthy environment in two similar cases in the West. The plaintiffs in Navahine v. Hawai’i Department of Transportation contend that the state constitution is violated by Hawaii’s geological fuel-based transportation system. The case will be heard in the 2024 summer. Similar to this, Juliana v. United States, a national lawsuit brought by Our Children’s Trust in 2015, is still pending after an Oregon US district court reopened the case.
The plaintiffs are currently awaiting a judge to be assigned to their case as well as an answer from the defendants.
Big Oil vs. the State of California
The specifics: In mid-September, California officials announced plans to sue Big Oil, no just for downplaying the risks of climate change but also for purposefully disseminating false information and deceiving the public—and doing so for the past 50 years. Exxon, Shell, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, and BP, as well as the American Petroleum Institute, a trade organization for the oil industry, are among the defendants. These include five of the largest oil companies in the world and their subsidiaries. According to the lawsuit, the businesses were aware of the effects of climate change but purposefully chose to ignore them, causing harm to California worth tens of billion dollars. California wants the businesses to foot the bill for eradicating air pollution and putting out wildfires.
Why it matters: A recent US Supreme Court ruling that rejected the oil companies ‘ petition to have the cases thrown out supported the filing of related lawsuits against oil and gas companies by dozens of states and local governments. The second significant oil-producing state to file a disinformation lawsuit against Big Oil is California.
The oil industry had much requested that these cases be heard in federal courts because they believed that doing so would strengthen their case. Big Oil lost out on this year’s Supreme Court ruling because it makes it simpler for cases of this nature to be heard at the state and regional levels. Today, these lawsuits are beginning to move ahead gradually. Merner argued that because climate impacts “are regional, it makes sense that they should be preserved in regional courts.”
Legal experts liken the expanding movement to the battle against big tobacco, in which the plaintiffs also argued that the parties involved had deliberately misled the public. Although many experts think that the impact of the oil industry disinformation cases will be more geographical in nature, those lawsuits resulted in a substantial$ 246 billion settlement.
Romany Webb, the deputy director of Columbia Law School’s Sabin Center for Climate Change Law, said that these cases” could have a big impact in terms of requiring fossil fuel companies to contribute to ( climate ) adaptation efforts at the state and local level.”
California then lodged a complaint in September. A judge will decide whether the case moves toward discovery and trial after oil companies file a motion to dismiss. The discovery phase, during which plaintiffs can gather more evidence to support their case, is currently underway in a case like this one in Hawaii.
Delta Airlines v. Berrin
Details: According to this class action lawsuit, Delta Airlines should pay damages because it misrepresented itself as the first” carbon-neutral” airline.
Why it matters: Berrin v. Delta Airlines is one of many lawsuits filed to hold businesses responsible for greenwashing. Consumers point out that as more businesses pledge to reduce emissions, their promises frequently sound dull. Carbon offsets are at the heart of this and other greenwashing cases. These lawsuits claim that carbon offsets may not really reduce emissions and that businesses are deceiving consumers when they advertise themselves as carbon negative. Companies, including airlines, have heavily relied on carbon offsettings to achieve emissions neutrality.
Similar lawsuits were filed by defendants in different states against other businesses like Nike and Etsy. Nevertheless, Webb said that these cases” could have significant impacts for commercial climate action,” though it’s unclear exactly what that will entail. It’s also very early, she warned.
The next step is that Delta Airlines has submitted a motion to dismiss. A judge will then decide whether to begin preliminary proceedings or dismiss the case.
Legal Issues with the Willow Project
The specifics: Following President Joe Biden’s approval of the Willow Project, a sizable oil drilling project in the Alaska Arctic, in 2023, numerous conservation organizations and the grassroots cultural organization Royal Iupiat for the Living Arctic sued the national government. The economic organizations vowed to take the case to federal court after an Alaska state court ruled in November that the Bureau of Land Management could continue with the project.
Why it matters: According to Webb, the Willow Project’s progress could have significant effects on the climate. The lawsuit could provide crucial legitimate clarification on how states should take climate impacts on endangered species into account during environmental reviews. The project, which is one of the largest oil projects in decades, has the potential to disrupt thousands of acres of pristine habitat. According to the lawsuits, the provincial government neglected to take into account the project’s effects on threatened and endangered species as well as the effects of oil consumption-related greenhouse gas emissions.
According to Webb, the court’s response to those questions will have significant ramifications for another fossil fuel projects as well as non-fossil fuel initiatives with climate applications.
The plaintiffs intend to file a federal court appeal following the ruling. This article, which is a part of the Climate Desk collaboration, was first published by High Country News. In subsequent years, states, local communities, and climate activists have sought climate justice through litigation. The federal government’s failure to address the climate crisis has served as an inspiration for the least effective Congress of the 2023 United States.
This story was originally published in High Country News, and is now part of the Climate Desk Collaboration. Climate activists, local communities, and states have been turning to litigation in recent years to seek climate justice. The 2023 United States Congress is the least productive of the decade. The federal government’s failure to respond to the climate crisis has inspired
News from High Country by Marissa Garcia. This narrative, initially released by High Country News and now part of the Climate Desk collaboration, highlights the recent trend of climate activists, local communities, and states resorting to legal action to pursue climate justice. The 2023 U.S Congress has been named as the most unproductive in the decade, with many attributing the government’s inadequate response to climate change as a key factor. This has led to a surge in lawsuits attempting to bring those responsible for pollution to justice and initiate a shift in policy. The past five years have seen the quantity of climate-related lawsuits in America double, reaching over 100 filings in the previous year alone. Delta Merner, the principal scientist at the Science Hub for Climate Litigation at the Union of Concerned Scientists, has predicted that 2024 will be a crucial year for environmental lawsuits in the Western US, indicating that the upcoming year will follow the same trend. “A number of precedent-setting cases are set to progress through the judicial system.” The results of these upcoming cases could greatly influence efforts to reduce carbon emissions, corporate responsibility, and policy-making. Keep a watch on these four important climate-related legal cases in the West in 2024, including Genesis B. vs. EPA. The specifics: In California, 18 minors have filed a lawsuit against the US Environmental Protection Agency, alleging that the agency has infringed their constitutional rights by not taking action to lessen the impact of climate change.
