E - Litigation and Liability Extracts
E - Business Risk Disclosure Topics
E - CO2 Significance Under CEQA NEPA SEPA
E - Law and Policy by Geography
E - Legal Implications of SLR
E - Use of Law Against Climate Change Mitigation
Climate Case Chart - U.S.
2015 Hague District Court orders Dutch Government to reduce Dutch emissions by at least 25% by 2020, a stricter requirement than in the Paris Agreement
2015 Peruvian farmer brings suit against Germany utility RWE for damages, asking compensation based on RWE’s % of global emissions from 1751 to 2010. German Appeals court held the suit admissable.
2016 Conservation Law Foundation sues Exxon based on vulnterability of an Exxon oil tank farm to storm surge and other hazards
2016 Exxon investor files securities fraud class action against Exxon based on failure to disclose recognized risks of climate change.
2017 In Sinnok v. Alaska a group of children sued the state and the Governor for pro-oil policies that exacerbate the impacts of climate change where they live
2019/12 Dutch Supreme Court rejects appeal of Government against District and Appeals Court decisions, letting a reduction requirement of 25% by 2020 stand.
2019/12 New York Court rules for Exxon in securities fraud case
2019 NGOs brought suit against French oil company Total, charging a failure to adequately report and mitigate climate risks
2020/3 Billionaire hedge fund manager threatens to sue banks for lending money to coal-mining companies
2020 Federal Appeals Court finds that Juliana v United States defendants (21 young people) lack standing for their lawsuit
2020 Federal Court of Australia declared than Minister of Environment, in approving a mining project, has a duty to take reasonable care to avoid injury or death to persons under 18.
2020 Irish Supreme Court rules that Irish National Mitigation Plan does not comply with the Irish Climate Act because too vague in specifying low carbon transition to 2050
2021/4 German Constitutional Court holds that German Federal Climate Change Act iincompatible with fundamental rights due to vagueness.
2021/4 Paris Administrative Court holds that French Government has failed to comply with commitments under the Paris Agreement. Ordered payment of 1 Euro for moral damages, and ordered action by 12/2022.
2021/5 District Court of the Hauge rules that Shell must cut emissions by 45% by 2030, in first court ruling that companies need to align policies with the Paris Agreement
2021 Cases by category of law 2017 - Jan 2021
2021 Cases by sector 2017 - Jan 2021
2021 Cases with outcomes favorable to climate action are in the majority
2021 Climate laws and policies around the world as of May 2021
2021 Federal agencies that were defendants in cases 2017 - Jan 2021
2021 Grounds of review in cases against governments 2015-2021
2021 Not all cases are aligned with climate goals
2021 Number of cases involving US federal environmental statutes
2021 Number of lawsuits around world by jurisdiction
2021 Outcomes in human rights cases
2021 Plaintiffs and petitioners in “con” cases 2027 - Jan 2021
2021 Plaintiffs and petitioners in “pro” cases 2017 - Jan 2021
2021 Proportion of cases with outcomes that are favorable, unfavorable, and neutral (cases outside US)
2021 Proportion of strategic cases over time
2021 Total climate litigation cases over time, U.S. and non-U.S.
2021 Total number recorded climate litigation cases 1986 - 2020 (US vs all other countries)
2021 Who were the defendants in cases 2017 - Jan 2021
Climate Lawsuits Vary Widely
Could the legal system's approach change?
2010 Deutsche Bank - Growth of US Climate Litigation: Trends and Consequences
2015 Bank of England Governor Mark Carney characterizes litigation risks as “significant, uncertain, and non-linear”
2015 was a key year for climate change law, including the Urgenda and Leghari cases
2021 has been an exceptional year for climate iltigation
ClientEarth files first known climate litigation case against a central bank (National Bank of Belgium)
Climate litigation has shifted from retroactive responsibility for disasters to forward-looking to prevent environmental damage
Colombia’s Supreme Court has recognised that fundamental human rights are “substantially linked and determined by the environment and the ecosystem” and that the Columbian Amazon has its own rights.
Complaint’s Causes of Action
Defendants acted to increase fossil fuel usage
Defendants actions were reckless
Defendants had a meeting of the minds
Defendants knew what would happen
Defense Production Act useful since president can use through executive order, and DPA can provide guarantee to manufacturers
EPA says it is already doing enough
Establishing the personal consequences of climate change
Even for those who believe that climate litigation can play an important role in bringing the world closer to a 1.5°C trajectory, there is only so much the courts can do.
In Germany the Constitutional Court recognised that “one generation must not be allowed to consume large portions of the CO2 budget while bearing a relatively minor share of the reduction effort, if this would involve leaving subsequent generations with a drastic reduction burden and expose their lives to serious losses of freedom”.
Katrina Breaches Canal Litigation
Legal case in favor of using the Defense Production Act to address climate change - climate change is risk to national security
Leghari case based on constitutional protection of the right to life.
Schneider: There are tools in toolbox other than PTD that are better suited to dealing with climate change. All Dept. of Interior policies now utilize a "climate change lens"
Setting the stage for the complaint
The 2016 amendments removed some challenges to the complaint
The question remains: how much can climate change cases really contribute to climate action in Australia – and internationally – and will it be enough to turn the current disastrous climate trajectory?
The statutory context for TSCA
The Urgenda case in the Netherlands was a watershed moment for climate litigation. It was the first time a government was found to owe a legal duty of care to protect people from climate harms.
The vast majority of climate litigation has been in the U.S., but also includes 39 other countries and international courts and tribunals
US, unlike most countries, does not have environmental protection built into its constitution
Vanuatu has launched a campaign to seek an Advisory Opinion from the world’s highest court – the International Court of Justice – on the issue of climate change and human rights.
Weller on potential of tort law for victims of climate change: “in a nutshell, causation and breach of duty cannot be established.”
Whitman: Not clear how PTD model applies to air - very different from using PTD to influence state resource management decisions
E - Decisionmaking Top Level
I:LitigationandLiability (Deep Dive)
2023 Distribution of Climate Finance
2010 Infographic - Carbon Footprint by U.S. Region
2011 Infographic - GHG Contributions vs. Climate Vulnerability
2023 Distribution of Climate Finance
I:EnvironmentalLitigation
I:Litigation/LiabilityasBusinessRisk
S - Children's Trust Litigation
S - Ecocide in International Law
S - International Climate Law
S - Nuisance, Negligence, and Strict Liability
S - State and Local Climate Law
N - Business Litigation and Liability Risk
N - Business Use of Litigation and Liability
N - Evaluating Climate Litigation Strategies
N - International Law and Litigation
N - Legal Strategies for the Climate
T - Climate Litigation Portals
T - Climate Litigation Websites
T - Legal Topics - Websites
T - Litigation and Liability Networks
V - Litigation and Liability
E - AI and Climate Change
E - Alternative Decisionmaking
E - Applying Risk Principles to Climate Assessment
E - Barriers to Climate Progress
E - Bayesian Decisionmaking
E - Business Role in Policy Decision-Making
E - Challenges of Climate Decisionmaking
E - Climate and Economic Growth
E - Climate Change and the 2018 Midterms
E - Climate Change as Polarizing
E - Climate Failure to Date
E - Climate Progress/Good News
E - Decisionmaking Recommendations
E - Environmental Regulation as Polarizing
E - Making better decisions
E - Non-State Actors and Actions
E - Personal Decisionmaking - Individual Activism
E - Policy/Regulatory Risks
E - Post-2012 Climate Policy
E - Pursuing Transpartisan Coalitions
E - Risk Based Decision-Making
E - Societal Mitigation Goals
E - Solving Climate Change
E - The Environment as BiPartisan
E - Vulnerability Assessments and Action Plans
2013/12 The Fallacies of Risk
2007 Design to win strategy
2007 Government Policies Fall Into 4 Key Areas
2007 The importance of policy in driving reductions
2008 Climate information and decision making illustration
2009 Choosing the right strategy in probability space
2009 Four different decision regimes
2009 Science policy typology
2009 The challenges to BC policy and implementation
2009 The right emissions abatement strategy
2010 The example of tobacco behavior change
2011 1. The challenges going forward are huge
2011 10 Steps to Implementing a Risk Management Framework
2011 Although U.S. support is less reliable
2011 But climate change falls outside the applicability of the assumptions
2011 Chinese are moving aggressively on renewables
2011 Emissions trajectories compatible (50% ) with 2 degree limit
2011 Plan for “Perfect Storm” and Policy Failure Scenarios
2011 The misleading nature of policy statistics
2011 There is clearly no single decision maker
2011 These assumptions work for a certain group of problem
2011 Why we might want to approach the climate change issue backwards
2013 Pledges vs. contributions diverge dramatically with uncertainty
2013 Sustainability science as a collective learning process
2013 System 1 and system 2 thinking
2013 The result is to act strenuously to avoid the tipping point.
2014 Coal generation forecast
2014 Household efficiency
2014 Renewable mandates forecast
2014 The form pledges could take for 2030
2014 Transport sector forecast
2014 USGCRP: We need more "Boundary Processes"
2015 How did Paris Agreement Do - Page 1
2015 How did Paris Agreement Do - Page 2
2015 Key sectors exposed to a 2 degree climate scenario
2015 Who is best positioned to advance climate goals?
2016 Carter_Paris climate agreement global death sentence
2016 Climate action mosaic
2016 Cognitive Bias Wheel
2016 The impact of cultural cognition worldviews
2016 What images motivate action?
2017 23 companies have set 100% renewable energy targets
2017 Clean Power Plan Costs and Benefits
2017 Companies setting science-based targets
2017 Fortune 500 companies by types of targets in place
2017 Fortune 500 companies with GHG targets
2017 Fortune 500 companies with GHG targets by sector
2017 Target achievement rates
2017 The distribution of National Determined Contributions
2017 Why companies haven't set targets
A range of ways people look at addressing climate change
An example of availability
Climate change costs to 2030 using the "TIP" framework - Technology - Impacts - Policy
Climate Risk Management - Challenge of Acting Individually
Climate Risk Management - The Inaction Scenario
Countries clearly want Bottom-Up Targets, and Weak Accountability
Decision making elements and outcomes
1997 Diagrammed results by % respondents
1997 Diagrammed results by value
Energy Security vs. Climate Change
Evidence that we under-estimate the impact
Framework for climate regulation and management
Game theory challenge clear in regional sensitivities to future policy
Global negotiations getting more serious about climate change
How do we get off our current path of 4 degrees by 2100
If a problem can be solved, no need to worry about it
Many people find this very difficult to do.
No sensible risk management framework should ignore worst case scenarios
Relatively modest mitigation takes tail risk off the table
The problem of timing, with much of the benefit coming after 2050.
200X The ways we respond to problems
Why conservatives don't trust progressives
Willful Blindness - We're happy to not see
6. Bottom line for many is risk ignorance
2014 Change in risk management depends on making climate risk relevant to politics
A look at UK risks concluded indirect risks an order of magnitude greater than direct domestic impacts
As a Society We Are Preparing for a Medium-sized Climate Problem
Climate change and non-proliferation have similarities_but not in how we're approaching them
Climate Risk Management - the Ideal Scenario
Comparison between terrorism risk and climate change risk
Important to broaden participation in the risk assessment process
Important to understand risk, even if we don't like the answer
Is cost-benefit analysis even the right tool?
Juxtaposing climate, earthquake, and radioactivity risks
Recommendations for applying the principles of risk assessment
Remember the Challenge of Policy Implementation
Scientists have called for dramatic reductions - but no such policy in place
Scientists tend to avoid Type 1 error, and accept Type 2 error
Setting risk-responsible policy
Targets needed to stabilize at 2oC?
The Cancun Agreements give an outline of a global climate regime
The challenge of CC cost-benefit analysis
Trade agreements are a major impediment to climate action
We are not applying the lessons of managing security risks
We have tended to look at climate risks too narrowly
We've solved many environmental risks, why not climate change?
Why climate change is different as a political issue
Why consider risk management in this context
With some imagination can include tipping points in the analysis.
2021 Decision-Making Milestones vs. PPM
2021 Temperature, Emissions, Fuel Use
No more concurrent uploads are allowed - wait until at least one has finished.
Headings - Extracted Materials
E - Litigation and Liability Extracts
Extracted Graphics | Extracted Ideas