Environmental & Energy,
Corporate
Nov. 5, 2019
Climate change lawsuit alleges violation of shareholder protection statute
The case is not about whether climate change is real or caused by human activity. Those issues are conceded by Exxon. Rather, the lawsuit is about “proxy costs,” which are costs included in economic projections as a proxy or stand-in for the likely effects of expected future events.
John H. Minan
Emeritus Professor of Law
University of San Diego School of Law
Professor Minan is a former attorney with the Department of Justice in Washington, D.C. and the former chairman of the San Diego Regional Water Quality Board.
President Donald Trump has described climate change as a "hoax." He plans to take the United States out of the 2015 Paris Agreement, which deals with greenhouse gas emissions, adaption, and finance. Federal agencies are following his lead by promoting domestic fossil fuel projects, while masking or ignoring their environmental effects. But some businesses are not following the administration's lead in ignoring the effects of climate change in planning projects.
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