Author name: Alison Taylor

Our efforts here on the Sunshine Coast are part of a global phenomenon of individuals and groups taking legal action to slow climate change. Here’s a world map of those cases which have been filed before national courts or quasi-judicial bodies specific to a given country. (Global Trends in Climate Change Litigation: 2023 Snapshot) Read More

In an opinion column in Powell River’s newspaper The Peak, Neil Abramson, a retired professor from SFU’s Beedie School of Business, explains why he’s changed his mind and joined the local Sue Big Oil group, which advocates for suing oil and gas corporations for damaged caused by climate change. (Article from The Peak Newspaper) Read More

In a Montana courtroom, 16 young people are suing the state for failing to take action to curb global warming. This ongoing climate change lawsuit is the first to reach trial among dozens filed across the U.S. in the last decade. Harrowing, personal accounts could soon be heard more often in other jurisdictions, including in Canada. (Article from CBC News) Read More

A recent CBC interview with Dave Sawyer, Principal Economist at the Canadian Climate Institute, noted that climate change could cost Canada at least $25 billion annually starting as early as 2025 – just two years from now. (CBC News, Power and Politics Episode) Read More

Climate litigation in the US could be entering a “game changing” new phase, experts believe, with a spate of lawsuits around the country set to advance after a recent supreme court decision, and with legal teams preparing for a trailblazing trial in a youth-led court case beginning next week. (Article from The Guardian) Read More

The Town of View Royal has lent its support to a pending class-action lawsuit against global fossil fuel companies for a share of municipal climate change costs. The town is the second municipality in B.C. to join the Sue Big Oil campaign. (Article from Goldstream News Gazette) Read More

Damage related to climate change has left Honolulu and the county spending millions of dollars on repairs and infrastructure to try to adapt to the rising risks. Unwilling to have their taxpayers bear the full brunt of these costs, the city and county sued multiple big oil companies in 2020. Their case just got a break from the U.S. Supreme Court. That has significantly increased their odds of succeeding. (Article from The Conversation) Read More

In the past few weeks, the U.S. Supreme Court refused applications by fossil fuel companies to halt climate lawsuits filed against them by state and local governments. Then a group of Attorneys General representing 16 states filed submissions in San Francisco and Oakland’s case against fossil fuel companies. What do these developments mean for Canada and for BC’s Sue Big Oil campaign, which is pressing local governments here to file similar lawsuits? (Article from SueBigOil.ca) Read More

As fires blaze in Alberta, Saskatchewan and B.C., new research has drawn a direct and measurable link between carbon emissions traced back to the world’s major fossil fuel producers and the increase in extreme wildfires across western Canada and the United States. “Part of what this study does is show the linkages between these companies, their emissions and climate impacts, which will hopefully allow them to be held accountable for their fair share of the costs associated with wildfire,” said a co-author of the study. (Article from CBC) Read More