Climate Change Litigation 2.0

To date, climate change-related litigation, and the resulting economic and environmental impacts, has been a tort with no successful path for private litigation.

In the early 2000s, there was a small number of climate change-related lawsuits filed in federal courts, all of which were dismissed based on procedural issues, primarily on the grounds that regulation of greenhouse gas emissions is not a function of the judicial branch.

Over the last several years, a new wave of climate change-related lawsuits has been filed in which plaintiffs are suing based on different legal theories and for different types of damages.

By pleading these matters as product liability claims, plaintiffs hope to avoid the legal challenges that doomed the first round of litigation.