Companies are about to get sued by greens for being insufficiently dedicated to global warming alarmism.
“Clients of investment firms and beneficiaries of pension funds might have a legal case to bring if those who manage money for them stand idly by as emissions erode the value of their stock,” Howard Covington, a trustee of environmental law organisation ClientEarth, told The Guardian. “We are currently exploring such a possibility.”
ClitentEarth has already filed 10 legal cases of this type in Germany arguing that investor beneficiaries of pension funds have a legal case if the financial firms which manage their money “stand idly by as [carbon dioxide] emissions erode the value of their stock.” Some investment firms are legally obligated to act in the financial best interests of their clients, which allows the environmental lawsuits to get around legal standards which normally prevent such lawsuits.
Environmental groups justify such extreme legal tactics under the argument that the global warming deal arrived at in Paris last December is largely voluntary, meaning that groups such as investors will have to be pressured into compliance.
The science journal Nature claims financial companies that don’t adequately reduce carbon dioxide emissions could easily find themselves on the wrong end of a lawsuit.
“Because of the uncertainties in estimating future climate damage, this will not be an easy case to bring. But we anticipate that such a case will ultimately succeed,” the CEO of Client Earth elaborated.
The governments of the United Kingdom and the Netherlands have fallen victim to similar legal arguments made in their own courts. Such legal arguments aren’t limited to Europe. In the United States, the states of California and New York are suing ExxonMobil for not disclosing climate risks to investors.
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