Message From the Editor

Globally, the number of climate-change-related lawsuits has more than doubled since 2015. Between 1986, when the first climate lawsuit was filed, and 2014, approximately 800 cases were brought. In the past six years alone, more than 1,000 cases have hit courts. These cases signal a move away from the idea that only scientific experts can speak for climate change, and other professionals, including lawyers, “are pushing the cause forward,” historian and climate accountability researcher Benjamin Franta argues. Stella Levantesi explores this rise of “climate-washing” litigation [[link removed]].

Our UK team has been turning out sterling work this week, too. Senior Reporter Phoebe Cooke revealed that Tory MP Craig Mackinlay, who is leading a backbench campaign against the government’s net zero policies, is currently employing two aides linked to the UK’s most high-profile climate science denial group. Mackinlay aides Ruth Lea and recently hired Harry Wilkinson both have ties to the anonymously funded Global Warming Policy Foundation. The revelations should deal “a fatal blow” to the credibility of the Net Zero Scrutiny Group, which Mackinlay chairs, one expert warns. Read on [[link removed]].

Meanwhile, environmental campaigners in England are celebrating a win — despite losing their case. Judges in the Court of Appeal have ruled that Surrey County Council acted lawfully in its approval of an onshore oil development, despite ignoring emissions produced when the fuel is eventually used. However, one of the three judges said the council had failed to consider the full impacts of the project in its environmental assessment, which legal counsel for the campaigners hailed as a “hugely important legal victory in the context of wider climate change litigation in the UK.” Tracy Keeling has the story [[link removed]].

Have a story tip or feedback? Get in touch: [[email protected]].

Thanks,

Brendan DeMelle

Executive Director

P.S. We’re so grateful for donors last year who supported our public interest journalism. We’re excited about the news, investigations, and analysis we’ve got lined up. If you’d like to help, can you donate $10 or $20 right now? [[link removed]]

A Growing Wave of Litigation Spurs Climate Action [[link removed]]— By Stella Levantesi [[link removed]] (06 min. read)—

In France, three non-governmental organizations sued the oil company Total over alleged “inadequate” environmental and human rights assessments of its oil project in Uganda and Tanzania. In Australia, a student filed a consumer complaint with Ad Standards against the financial services organization HSBC for claiming to support the protection of the Great Barrier Reef despite its links to fossil fuel operations. In South Africa, three civil society organizations launched a case alleging that the government’s plans to obtain new coal power threaten various constitutional rights.

These are just a handful of the hundreds of cases of climate litigation that have arisen worldwide over the past few years. These cases signal a move away from the idea that only scientific experts can speak for climate change, and other professionals, including lawyers, “are pushing the cause forward,” historian and climate accountability researcher Benjamin Franta argues.

READ MORE [[link removed]] Revealed: How the Aides of ‘Anti-Net Zero’ MP Craig Mackinlay are Linked to a Leading Climate Denial Group [[link removed]]— By Phoebe Cooke [[link removed]] (06 min. read)—

The Tory MP leading a backbench campaign against the government’s net zero policies is currently employing two aides linked to the UK’s most high-profile climate science denial group, DeSmog can reveal.

Craig Mackinlay, chair of the Net Zero Scrutiny Group (NZSG), recently hired Harry Wilkinson, head of policy at the anonymously funded Global Warming Policy Foundation (GWPF), to work for him in Parliament. Wilkinson was previously employed by GWPF founder and former chancellor Lord Nigel Lawson, who recently said climate change was “not a problem”.

READ MORE [[link removed]] Court Approves Surrey Oil Development But Campaigners Hail ‘Important Legal Victory’ [[link removed]]— By Tracy Keeling (6 min. read) —

Judges in the Court of Appeal have ruled that Surrey County Council acted lawfully in its approval of an onshore oil development, despite ignoring emissions produced when the fuel is eventually used.

Campaigners welcomed a decision on Thursday from one of the three judges, however, who said the council had failed to consider the full impacts of the project in its environmental assessment.

READ MORE [[link removed]] Private Equity Executives Hide Behind Philanthropy as Their Firms Ravage the Earth [[link removed]]— By Jessica Corbett, Common Dreams (4 min. read) —

A report published Tuesday by a pair of nonprofits shines a light on the “Wall Street heavyweights” at private equity firms who “burnish their reputations through hundreds of millions of dollars in philanthropy, even as their investments help drive climate catastrophe.”

“The private equity industry largely evades public scrutiny, despite investing billions in fossil fuel investments.”

READ MORE [[link removed]] From the Climate Disinformation Database: [[link removed]] Global Warming Policy Foundation [[link removed]]

The Global Warming Policy Foundation (GWPF) [[link removed]] is a UK-based think tank founded by former Conservative Chancellor Nigel Lawson with the purpose of combating what it describes as “extremely damaging and harmful policies” designed to mitigate climate change. Lawson described the GWPF as an “all-party and non-party think-tank and a registered educational charity which, while open-minded on the contested science of global warming, is deeply concerned about the costs and other implications of many of the policies currently being advocated.” Although Lawson claims to be “open minded” on global warming, the GWPF website has a banner depicting a short-term temperature graph that suggests the world is not warming.

Read the group's profile [[link removed]] and browse other individuals and organizations in our Climate Disinformation Database [[link removed]] and Koch Network Database [[link removed]]

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