Climate Files

Documents from Climate Investigations Center’s Climate Files archival portal continue to inform the discussion regarding culpability for the climate crisis. Most recently, in County of San Mateo v. Chevron Corp., et al., eight amicus briefs were filed supporting the plaintiffs seeking redress for climate change’s impacts on their communities. One of the briefs, filed by …

Earlier this month, CIC’s Kert Davies was an invited speaker at a collaborative conference held at Brown University on the economic impacts of climate change and the opposition to policy advances. The day long event, America’s Climate Change Future: Housing Markets, Stranded Assets, and Entrenched Interests, gathered experts on a range of climate change topics …

With the impacts of climate change becoming more visible and more dire, the movement to hold corporations accountable is growing day by day. As readers know, we have been covering the climate liability lawsuits that have been filed of late and 2018 was a banner year as reported by Climate Liability News. Several new lawsuits …

As climate change liability –who is to blame– increasingly lands in courtrooms around the globe, the Philippines Commission on Human Rights is taking a different and unique approach, investigating climate change impacts as a human rights infringement. The Commission has held a series of hearings this year to investigate the role of fossil fuel companies (also …

I. Michaels Cancels on Fossil Fuel Impact Investigation On September 28, 2018, the Commission on Human Rights of the Philippines was scheduled to hear Patrick Michaels in their ongoing investigation into carbon majors’ contributions to climate change and its impacts on Filipinos. Michaels, currently the Director of the Center for the Study of Science at …

Since Climate Investigation Center’s last climate liability update there have been multiple developments, some favorable to plaintiffs, others less so. As the legal battles progress, CIC continues to uncover and curate primary documents on its Climate Files portal. In the last two months, we’ve added documents to our Exxon, Shell, and trade association collections that further …

Document Updates As climate change impacts grow more serious everyday, documents housed on Climate Files preserve the crucial history of who knew what, when they knew it, and what they did next. Recently released documents include: 1996 remarks from former ExxonMobil CEO, Lee Raymond; 1994 edition of ABC’s Nightline television program reporting on corporate funding …

The news on climate change lawsuits keeps churning. On May 25, 2018, U.S. District Court Judge W. Alsup kept City of Oakland v. BP, et al. in court, opening four of the five defendants to discovery as it relates to jurisdictional issues. Meanwhile, multiple developments have progressed in cases throughout the world:  most recently King …

Newly uncovered internal documents from Royal Dutch Shell/Shell Group provide new insights into what they knew about climate change and when they knew it. Documents unearthed by Jelmer Mommers of De Correspondent were published today on Climate Files, a project of the Climate Investigations Center.  These documents date back to 1988 and show intense interest in climate …

In the last two months, February and March 2018, multiple climate change accountability lawsuits moved forward: the New York Attorney General’s argument against Exxon was bolstered by the Second Circuit Citizen’s United decision, the Federal Government’s writ of mandamus was rejected in favor of the children plaintiffs in the Juliana case, and in The People …