Case: Climate Change Litigation in Colorado
Colorado communities sue fossil fuel companies to pay the costs of climate change adaptation.
Climate change is here and now, and they are only going to get worse. Poor communities, especially in developing nations, suffer the most.
Climate change has been called “the world’s greatest market failure.” For decades, companies in the natural resource exploitation industries have achieved record profits, in large part because they have been able to push the costs of their greenhouse gas emissions onto taxpayers and local communities.
As the world begins – very late in the game – to respond to climate change, we are seeing the threats to earth rights defenders grow. Responding to climate change will require major infrastructure development projects – developing new energy sources, relocating entire populations of people, and creating demand for new types of natural resources. This, in turn, is drawing more communities into natural resource-based conflict. Many of these changes are occurring in areas of the world with weak rule of law and rampant corruption.
