Why you should pay attention to climate lawsuits

By now, most people paying attention to climate change know that industrialized and wealthy countries produce the most greenhouse gasses while many countries in the Global South disproportionately feel the brunt of climate change. Climate change has and will continue to have an enormous impact on human health, and there have been a number of lawsuits against large polluters for their contribution in climate disasters.

In December of 2023, 18 California youth sued the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, claiming that the agency violated their constitutional rights by failing to mitigate the effects of climate change. Similar cases have cropped up all around the U.S. including People of the State of California v. Big Oil, Berrin v. Delta Air Lines Inc., and Montana's landmark youth-led climate change case, Held v. Montana.

As these types of cases start to proliferate and gain traction, it's possible legal precedence will be established to hold companies liable for health damages due to their contributions to climate change. Health care reporters should keep an eye on them.

As more climate change lawsuits are filed, it is important for health care journalists to investigate how the defendants are implicated in medical damages to the public. A 2021 report found that the total health costs from climate change in the U.S. surpass $1 trillion a year. To follow these lawsuits, familiarize yourself with Columbia Law School's Climate Change Litigation Databases and the Center for Climate Integrity's Climate Accountability Lawsuits.

Who's responsible for climate change?

Of the last 22 years, 20 have been the hottest on record and the only way to limit climate change is to drastically - and quickly - decrease our collective greenhouse gas emissions. If we are not able to cut these emissions, people will continue to die from punishing heat waves and will be displaced by wildfire, sea level rise and drought.

Carbon dioxide, the greenhouse gas that is the main driver of climate change, stays in the atmosphere for thousands of years. Even if we were able to reach climate neutrality tomorrow, humans would still have to live with the damage caused by the greenhouse gasses already in the atmosphere. To get a better idea of who is responsible for climate change, you have to look at which nations have historically emitted the most greenhouse gasses.

According to the MIT Climate Review, the U.S. is responsible for roughly 24% of all emissions, with the EU not far behind. China's global emissions in 2024 make up 31% of all greenhouse gas emissions, but if you look at the historical total of global emissions, they've contributed 14%. While the global community should still pressure China to rein in its greenhouse gas emissions, it is important to recognize that the U.S. and EU have a larger share of the responsibility for climate change today. Looking at industrialized nations as a whole, a New York Times analysis found that 23 rich industrialized countries are responsible for 50 percent of all historical emissions, and more than 150 countries are responsible for the rest.

When looking past governmental bodies, where is blame placed then? Can blame be put on individuals, corporations and/or fossil fuel producers? This question further complicates the question of where liability lies and who would be paying for the damages. The "we" in "we are responsible for climate change" is a distorting and dangerous fictional construct, writes climate scholar and author Genevieve Guenther. Guenther argues that everyone is not equally complicit in their role in climate change.

Additional coverage

• Yale Experts Explain Climate Lawsuits - Yale Sustainability.
• The legal battles changing the course of climate change - BBC.
• Do Climate Lawsuits Lead to Action? Researchers Assess Their Impact - Nature.
• Climate litigation more than doubles in five years, now a key tool in delivering climate justice - U.N. Environmental Program.
• Why 2024 will be a crucial year for climate litigation - The Guardian.