News

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

Over 130 U.S. lawmakers and members of the European Parliament have sent a joint letter to President Biden, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, and U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres, demanding the removal of the head of the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company as president of the upcoming U.N. climate conference, COP28. (News report from DemocracyNow.org) Read More

Climate change protestors have slowed London traffic and crashed Shell’s shareholder AGM to highlight the frustrations felt by many people at the huge profits being made by fossil fuel companies and their inaction on critical climate mitigation measures. (Article in E&T – Engineering and Technology) Read More

Climate litigation poses a financial risk to fossil fuel companies because it lowers the share price of big polluters, research has found. The researchers hope their work will encourage lenders, financial regulators and governments to consider the effect of climate litigation when making investment decisions in a warmer future, and ultimately drive greener corporate behaviour. (Article from The Guardian) Read More

A peer-reviewed study from the Union of Concerned Scientists found that 37 percent of the total area scorched by forest fires in the western United States and southwestern Canada since 1986 can be attributed to heat-trapping emissions traced to the world’s 88 largest fossil fuel producers and cement manufacturers. The study offers policymakers, elected officials, and legal experts a scientific basis for holding fossil fuel companies accountable for the impacts of their products and their decades-long deception efforts. (Report from Union of Concerned Scientists USA) Read More

The world’s top fossil fuel companies owe at least $209bn in annual climate reparations to compensate communities most damaged by their polluting business and decades of lies, a new study calculates. (Article from The Guardian) Read More

The supreme court on Monday rebuffed an appeal by major oil companies that want to face the litigation in federal courts, rather than in state courts, which are seen as more favorable to plaintiffs. The cases have been compared to tobacco lawsuits in the 1990s that resulted in a settlement of more than $200bn and changed how cigarettes are advertised and sold in the US. (Article from The Guardian) Read More

A coalition of Canada’s six largest oil sands companies is facing a new complaint with the Competition Bureau for an advertising campaign that Greenpeace Canada says is spreading dangerous climate disinformation. (Article from Ricochet Media) Read More