U.S. lawsuits favoring climate action are most successful in renewable energy, efficiency matters

The U.S. has seen hundreds of lawsuits over federal and state policies to address climate change. Now, an analysis finds that groups that want to constrain greenhouse gas emissions are most apt to win in court when cases involve renewable energy or energy efficiency. And they most frequently lose suits involving regulation of coal-fired power plants (Nat. Clim. Change 2018, DOI: 10.1038/s41558-018-0240-8). A team led by Sabrina McCormick, a sociologist at George Washington University, examined 873 cases involving climate change filed in the U.S. from 1990 to 2016. The group found that litigants favoring climate-related regulation, such as constraining carbon dioxide emissions from cars and protecting biodiversity, won most frequently when the cases were based on federal environmental laws, such as the Clean Air Act. Litigants against regulation were most successful in suits that involved the public trust, a legal doctrine that historically dealt with preservation of coastal land for public use. Legal efforts to influence climate change policy, the researchers conclude, “should consider these trends and outcomes.”