Climate Change Litigation Goes Before The Supreme Court

In January, the US Supreme Court will hear arguments in one of the lawsuits filed against oil and gas companies for their alleged contribution to climate change.

The Court’s ruling will likely have a significant impact on how climate change litigation will proceed and, consequently, on the exposure faced by the “Carbon Majors” – and their liability insurers.

In previous articles addressing climate change litigation in the context of insurance and reinsurance, we have discussed the “second wave” of climate-related lawsuits being brought in the US since 2017-2018.

State and local governments across the nation are suing oil and gas companies, alleging, in essence, as the Fourth Circuit put it, that these defendants “substantially contributed to climate change by producing, promoting, and (misleadingly) marketing fossil fuel products long after learning the dangers associated with them.”