News

US Courts allow private citizens to sue corporations over damages related to GHG emissions

Publish date: November 22, 2009

NEW YORK – Residents in several US states have taken a particularly American route in their fight against climate change – sue the corporations responsible for emissions of greenhouse gasses in the United States. The cases have been accepted by Federal Appellate courts to move forward.

Over the past several weeks, Circuit Courts covering Mississippi and Connecticut have allowed suits against major US utilities and industries to proceed, as the courts have ruled the plaintiffs have due cause to link damages they have suffered to climate change produced by oil refineries and coal fired power plants.

The moves by the court are especially noteworthy, as they represent the first time the American judiciary has had to consider tracing actual damages caused by climate change back to their source.

In its decision to advance the Mississippi case, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals cited that climate gasses were “fairly traceable” as probable cause to continue litigation against the emitting corporations, overruling the First Circuit court, who had ruled that climate change was a political, not a legal issue.

In a separate case, the United States’ Second Circuit Court of appeals allowed the case of Connecticut vs. AEP (American Electric Power) to move forward. This decision allows nuisance claims filed by several states against coal burning utilities to proceed.

The issue will be especially poignant in the state of Mississippi, where a group of 12 homeowners are seeking damages from 33 energy companies, including ExxonMobile and coal giant Peabody Energy, electric utilities and other conglomerates who they say were responsible for contributing to greenhouse gas emissions that caused 2005’s Hurricane Katrina, which nearly five years later still has the US Gulf Coast reeling to clean up damages.
Homeowners who had Hurricane insurance found themselves as loggerheads with insurance adjustors who countered that the main damage to their homes was inflicted by flooding that came with the storm. According to statistics obtained from the Mississippi Insurance Department, less than 25 percent of coastal homeowners had flood insurance at the time the storm hit.  

The case therefore brings with it a lot of baggage for those whose lives were moved back to square one by the storm.

More News

All news

6th meeting of the Carbon Removal Expert Group summary and feedback 

The Carbon Removal Certification Framework (CRCF) has been formally approved by the Council on the 19th of November 2024 and entered into force on the 9th of December 2024, providing an official mandate for the Commission to develop methodologies on carbon farming and carbon removals. However, the technical documents and specifications are still being drafted and revised for input from the Carbon Removals Expert Group (CREG), of which Bellona is a member. 

Photo: Christening of Northern Lights’ first CO₂ carrier in Stavanger in 2025, by Olav Øye

A great leap towards a scaled European market for CCS: Northern Lights expands storage capacity, will store CO₂ from Stockholm  

Europe’s only multi-source, injection-ready CO₂ storage site will more than triple its capacity by 2028. The decision follows an agreement with Stockholm Exergi to transport and store up to 800 – 900 kilotonnes of CO₂ per year. “This decision is years in the making, and the culmination of decades of hard work from many, Bellona included” says Bellona Europa Director Jonas Helseth.

Subscribe to our newsletter

Get our latest news

Stay informed