Thousands of Cases of Climate Change Litigation: Here’s Five

The global outcry against fossil fuels has led to thousands of legal actions around the world against oil companies and their destructive activities, most notably in favour of more meaningful climate action and against greenwashing.

According to a report by the Grantham Research Institute, the number of cases filed against fossil fuel companies has nearly tripled every year since the Paris Agreement in 2015. Today, there are as many as 3,000 legal challenges files in more than 55 countries.

In Canada, seven young climate campaigners launched a suit against the provincial government of Ontario for repealing the province’s cap-and-trade system and weakening its climate targets. The government will be asked to provide “meaningful remedies for the government’s ongoing violation of Charter rights.” In the United States, the number of pro-climate action lawsuits is increasing. In Hawaii, Big Oil companies will stand trial for misleading the public about the impact of burning fossil fuels. With its two laws requiring companies to disclose their GHG emissions and climate-related risks, California will become the first state to implement compulsory climate reporting, setting a precedent for other states to consider similar rules. Organic farmers and environmental groups have joined forces to sue the U.S. Agriculture Department for purging information from its website on climate change references like data and interactive tools, much needed for farmers to plan for climate risks like droughts, extreme weather, floods, heat waves, and wildfires. African NGOs are suing the governments of Tanzania and Uganda for failing to examine the East African Crude Oil Pipeline project’s contribution to climate change or the environmental and social impacts of a 1,500-km, $5 billion pipeline going through local communities and ecologically sensitive areas. The pipeline is expected to produce 34 million tons of carbon yearly over 40 years.