Abstract
The climate crisis has reached a perilous tipping point. Our entrenched reliance on fossil fuels remains unchecked, as fossil fuel corporations wield their power to block meaningful reform and entrench their profits. The political horizon offers little relief—an incoming administration is poised to dismantle vital environmental protections, stripping away the few safeguards that stand between us and climate catastrophe.
In this grim landscape, communities across the nation are turning to the courts with renewed urgency, seeking justice and reform through climate litigation. Yet past efforts have fallen short, stymied by two formidable barriers. First, by centering on greenhouse gas emissions through public nuisance claims, these lawsuits collided with federal preemption, as emissions fall under the purview of weak and ineffective federal regulation. Second, plaintiffs faced the near-impossible burden of proving causation, struggling to link specific climate harms to particular defendants amidst a sea of emitters.
This Article charts a bold new path, reshaping climate litigation to target the fossil fuel industry’s decades of deceit. By grounding legal claims in unjust enrichment—focusing on profits gained through systematic fraud—this strategy sidesteps the pitfalls of earlier cases. It avoids federal preemption by centering on corporate misconduct rather than emissions and resolves the causation challenge by targeting deceptive practices rather than diffuse environmental harms. Crucially, this approach taps into well-established legal principles for addressing fraud, while advancing the broader pursuit of climate justice.
As the window for regulatory reform slams shut, this innovative litigation framework offers a powerful, perhaps final, opportunity to hold fossil fuel corporations accountable. By exposing and penalizing their deceptive practices, this strategy could ignite meaningful climate action and avert the irreversible environmental devastation that threatens to define our legacy.
In this grim landscape, communities across the nation are turning to the courts with renewed urgency, seeking justice and reform through climate litigation. Yet past efforts have fallen short, stymied by two formidable barriers. First, by centering on greenhouse gas emissions through public nuisance claims, these lawsuits collided with federal preemption, as emissions fall under the purview of weak and ineffective federal regulation. Second, plaintiffs faced the near-impossible burden of proving causation, struggling to link specific climate harms to particular defendants amidst a sea of emitters.
This Article charts a bold new path, reshaping climate litigation to target the fossil fuel industry’s decades of deceit. By grounding legal claims in unjust enrichment—focusing on profits gained through systematic fraud—this strategy sidesteps the pitfalls of earlier cases. It avoids federal preemption by centering on corporate misconduct rather than emissions and resolves the causation challenge by targeting deceptive practices rather than diffuse environmental harms. Crucially, this approach taps into well-established legal principles for addressing fraud, while advancing the broader pursuit of climate justice.
As the window for regulatory reform slams shut, this innovative litigation framework offers a powerful, perhaps final, opportunity to hold fossil fuel corporations accountable. By exposing and penalizing their deceptive practices, this strategy could ignite meaningful climate action and avert the irreversible environmental devastation that threatens to define our legacy.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Journal | EMORY LAW JOURNAL |
| Publication status | Accepted/In press - 14 Mar 2025 |