From movies like “Erin Brockovich” and “A Civil Action” to more recent fare like “Dark Waters,” Americans are used to seeing lawyers vindicate the importance of environmental protection in court. Perhaps it is unsurprising, then, that environmentalists, frustrated with what they see as slow progress from the political branches of government on mitigating the effects of climate change, are increasingly seeking to achieve their objectives through litigation.
Between 1986 and 2017, 884 climate change lawsuits were brought in over 24 countries. By 2020, this number had nearly doubled to 1,550. While global in scope, the vast majority of climate-related lawsuits were brought in the United States. Some of the cases, far from being brought by scrappy underdogs, have been backed by philanthropists and non-governmental organizations and were based on a variety of legal theories.
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