June 25, 2018
Today, a federal judge dismissed lawsuits by the cities of San Francisco and Oakland against five major carbon producers for the costs of sea level rise caused by climate change. The judge granted a motion by the companies to dismiss the suit, claiming that climate change was an urgent issue but, because of its scale as a worldwide problem, was best solved by our political branches of government.
Lisa Anne Hamilton, Director of Climate and Energy at the Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL), released the following statement:
States and cities across the country and around the world are facing unprecedented costs as they begin to adapt to the urgent realities of climate change. In light of these impacts, it is unacceptable that this judgment fails to hold companies accountable for decades of knowingly and willingly contributing to the climate crisis while leaving taxpayers in countless municipalities with billions of dollars of liabilities.
The dismissal of this case rests on an unfortunate belief: the false narrative that we are all equally responsible for climate change. For decades, major fossil fuel companies have known about climate change and their own contributions to it — with some, including Shell, even quantifying those contributions with surprising accuracy as early as the 1980s. Yet instead of warning the public of the dangers of fossil fuel use, these companies funded climate denial campaigns, thwarted adaptation of renewable technologies, and fought regulations while continuing to profit from the impending global crisis.
While the outcome of this case is disappointing, it doesn’t change the long history of climate denial and obstruction led by these companies. New evidence is emerging every day that oil companies had early and repeated notice of the dangers of climate change, as well as numerous opportunities to avoid or reduce those risks — the key grounds for holding these companies legally accountable for these harms. Even today, the New York Attorney General is deepening her investigation into whether ExxonMobil misled investors on climate risk, requesting a court order for financial documents that the company withheld. As a result, today’s decision is only one battle in what will likely be a long but worthwhile fight for corporate accountability and climate justice.