While U.S. climate liability cases inch forward in procedural battles, experts are watching the horizon for novel “greenwashing” and human rights claims to expand the climate litigation landscape in 2022.
“I expect we will see new forms of climate litigation arise soon, both in terms of the classes of defendants targeted and the theories of liability pursue,” Yale Law School professor Doug Kysar told Bloomberg Law.
Lawyers and court watchers predict a rise in misleading or false advertising allegations around climate pledges, financial disclosure cases, and claims against industry and governments over their emission pledges.
These kinds of challenges have already begun to be tested in courts around the world, and human rights could be at the forefront of new claims, according to Lewis & Clark Law School professor Lisa Benjamin.
“We’re going to see, probably, more activity on the human rights nexus with climate change,” she said. “We’ve seen an uptick in that in the past year or two.”
In the U.S., climate litigation will inch towards resolution on long-contested jurisdiction questions over the proper venue for consumer protection lawsuits against oil and gas companies.
Connecticut Attorney General William Tong’s consumer protection case against a single company—Exxon Mobil Corp.—will likely see his case argued next year.
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