According to the journal Nature, 2,666 climate litigation cases had been filed around the world by the end of last year. Not surprisingly, the U.S. was leading the world in climate litigation cases with 1,745, followed by the UK with 139 and Australia and Brazil with 132 and 82, respectively. Just 8% of the recorded cases came from low and middle income countries. With both Panama and Portugal seeing their first climate litigation cases last year, 55 countries have now recorded such cases.
Some of them are related to the fact that the Paris Climate Agreement, which is considered legally binding, saw countries vow to keep their average temperatures within 1.5 degrees Celsius of their pre-Industrial levels. Setting aside the fact that it's considered nearly impossible to measure this accurately thanks to the imprecision involved in measuring temperatures down to a tenth of a degree, especially in pre-industrial times, there are numerous other problems with the concept of climate change lawsuits.
It is also worth noting that many of the companies that are facing these ridiculous lawsuits are not fossil fuel companies, although they are often targets of the climate change crowd despite alarmists themselves still relying on fossil fuels. Instead, the targets are companies that produce a variety of goods and services ranging from tobacco and paper to media and health services.
A considerable number of these lawsuits are filed by NGOs and individuals who stand to gain from perpetuating the belief that it is possible for these companies to control the climate.
In the coming months, the International Court of Justice in The Hague is scheduled to start hearing evidence supporting two overarching questions related to climate change. One is what obligations nations have under international law to protect the climate from greenhouse gas emissions, while the second is what legal consequences would be appropriate for those whose actions, or lack of actions, lead to harm.
California and Montana have been involved in climate change lawsuits
Meanwhile, the state of California has been pursuing some of the world's biggest oil companies, such as Shell, Chevron and BP, as well as their subsidiaries, and demanding payment "for the costs of their impacts to the environment, human health and Californians’ livelihoods, and to help protect the state against the harms that climate change will cause in years to come.”
A famous case from last year saw a judge in Montana ruling in favor of claims by young residents that state officials infringed on their right to a healthy and clean environment via their promotion of fossil fuels.
Businesses accused of "climate washing"
There have also been a number of cases over so-called “climate washing,” which takes place when a business is accused of misrepresenting the progress that it has made toward reaching its environmental targets. Dozens of these cases were filed against governments and businesses in 2023, and those who file these cases are often succeeding.
According to The Guardian, of the 140 climate washing cases that were filed between 2016 and 2023 and studied in a review, 77 had been officially concluded and 54 of them had resulted in rulings in favor of the plaintiff.
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