Fri, Jul 05, 2024 page13

• Sharp rise in number of climate lawsuits against companies: report

  About 230 cases filed against corporations and trade associations around world since 2015

  • By Antonia Langford / The Guardian
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  The number of climate lawsuits filed against companies around the world is rising swiftly, a report has found, and a majority of cases that have concluded have been successful.

  About 230 climate-aligned lawsuits have been filed against corporations and trade associations since 2015, two-thirds of which have been initiated since 2020, according to the analysis published on Thursday by the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment.

  One of the most rapidly growing forms of litigation is over “climate-washing” — when companies are accused of misrepresenting their progress towards environmental targets — and the analysis found that 47 such cases were filed against companies and governments last year.

  

  An abandoned canoe in January sits on the cracked ground amid a drought at the Sau reservoir, north of Barcelona, Spain.

  Photo: AP

  As climate communications are increasingly scrutinized, there has been a rise in climate-washing litigation, often with positive outcomes for those bringing the cases. Of the 140 climate-washing cases reviewed between 2016 and last year, 77 have officially concluded, 54 of which ended with a ruling in favor of the claimant.

  More than 30 cases in 2023 concerned the “polluter pays” principle, whereby companies are held accountable for climate damage caused by high greenhouse gas emissions. The authors also highlighted six “turning off the taps” cases, which challenge the flow of finance to areas which hinder climate goals.

  The US accounted for the vast majority of litigation cases filed last year, with 129 cases. The UK was second, with 24 cases while 10 were filed in Brazil.

  

  A beachgoer in October 2020 walks down Waikiki Beach in Honolulu. About two years after 13 children and teens in Hawaii sued the state over the threat posed by climate change, both sides reached a settlement that includes an ambitious requirement to decarbonize Hawaii’s transportation system in the next 21 years.

  Photo: AP

  Climate litigation cases were filed for the first time in Panama and Portugal last year. This means that 55 countries have now recorded climate cases, with a growing number of litigation cases arising in the global south, which accounts for about 8 percent of all cases.

  While the majority of climate litigation cases are still filed against governments, an increasing number are being filed against companies, with an imbalance between the US and the rest of the world — 40 percent of cases outside the US were filed against companies, while in the US just 15 percent of cases involved companies.

  The authors cautioned that while “some types of cases, such as government framework cases, have already had lasting impacts on domestic climate governance … the long-term implications of other case types, such as climate-washing cases, remain unclear.”

  

  Jodi Kelly, left, practice manager at Stonecliff Veterinary Surgical Center, behind, and her husband, veterinarian Dan Kelly, in July last year use a canoe to remove surgical supplies from the flood-damaged center in Montpelier, Vermont, US. In May, Vermont became the first state to enact a law requiring fossil fuel companies to pay a share of the damage caused by climate change after the state suffered catastrophic summer flooding and damage from other extreme weather.

  Photo: AP

  A report published by the UN environment program (Unep) and the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law at Columbia University last year highlighted the importance of litigation for climate action around the world.

  “Climate litigation … has become an undeniably significant trend in how stakeholders are seeking to advance climate action and accountability,” said Andy Raine, the head of international environment law at Unep.

  One of the most prominent litigation cases of last year was the Montana ruling, where a judge ruled in favor of young Montana residents’ claims that state officials had infringed on their right to a clean and healthy environment by promoting fossil fuels.

  

  Climate activists in May gather outside the French asset manager Amundi headquarters to denounce the group’s holding in oil major TotalEnergies in Paris.

  Photo: AP

  Last week, the UK’s supreme court handed down a landmark judgment ruling that the emissions impact of burning coal, oil and gas should be factored into planning applications for new extraction projects, after a local campaigner challenged Surrey county council’s decision to give planning permission to an oil-drilling well at Horse Hill.

  Lawsuits against companies are less established, but have met with some success in shifting corporate behaviors. Shell, the Dutch airline KLM and the Australian oil company Santos are just a few of the targets of a plethora of climate-related legal challenges in the private sector.

  Last year, the London School of Economics and Political Science in a paper showed that climate litigation filings or unfavorable court decisions reduced firms’ value on the stock market by an average of -0.41 percent.
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