Commentary: Will New Scientific Breakthroughs Pave The Way For More Climate-Related Lawsuits?
Note: For our coverage of the California communities’ lawsuit against 37 fossil fuel companies re climate change compensation see here.
"Will New Scientific Breakthroughs Pave The Way For More Climate-Related Lawsuits?", 8 September 2017
[C]ompanies responsible for producing and marketing fossil fuels [...] may find themselves in legal crosshairs thanks to a first-of-its-kind study definitively linking global climate changes to carbon emissions directly associated with them...
According to the new study, emissions traced to the 90 largest carbon producers contributed approximately 57 percent of the upsurge in atmospheric carbon dioxide, nearly 50 percent of the increase in global average temperatures, and about 30 percent of global sea level rise since 1880...
[E]missions attributed to just the 50 investor-owned carbon producers, including BP, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, ExxonMobil, Peabody and Shell, were responsible for roughly 16 percent of the global average temperature increase and around 11 percent of the global sea level rise from 1880 to 2010...
Pending lawsuits by three California coastal communities could benefit immediately from [the] findings. San Mateo and Marin counties and Imperial Beach, a city in San Diego County, filed complaints in July against 37 major coal, oil and gas companies, including BP, Chevron, ExxonMobil and Shell, claiming higher sea levels triggered by their products is putting billions of dollars of property at risk...
*Sourced by RepRisk due diligence on ESG and business conduct risks, www.reprisk.com.