With children striking from school to protect their future, and the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change warning that we have just over ten years left to keep climate change to 1.5 degrees, many of you have asked us at the Environmental Dispute Resolution Fund (EDRF) what we are doing to support climate litigation.
VANCOUVER, Coast Salish Territories – BC environmental organizations are celebrating that 20 communities have now voted to send letters to 20 fossil fuel companies. The groups say BC local governments increasingly see clearly their costs associated with climate change, and the need for global fossil fuel giants like Chevron and Shell to pay a share of those costs.
In December 2018, the BC government introduced its new climate plan – CleanBC – which includes a number of important steps to help reduce the province's greenhouse gas emissions and move toward a more sustainable economy. Of particular note, the CleanBC plan includes strong accountability mechanisms that will help to ensure the plan achieves its goals.
Environmental groups and intervenors warn of further legal challenges
VANCOUVER, BC, Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh Territories — Today’s National Energy Board recommendation is far from the final say, given that the latest NEB review repeated the same mistakes as previous reviews that landed the federal government in court, say intervenors, environmental organizations and citizen groups.
When you walk along an ocean shoreline, it’s a feast for the senses – waves crashing, birds swooping and calling, the taste of salt in the air, vividly coloured sea plants and creatures washing up in the swell of the waves. It’s easy to see that the coast is a place rich in life and biodiversity.
But there’s more beyond what our senses can easily perceive. Thanks to scientists around the world, including right here in BC at Simon Fraser University, we’re learning that coastal vegetation – like salt marshes, sea grasses and mangroves – is also busily storing carbon.
VICTORIA, Territory of the Esquimalt and Songhees Nations – Lawyers with West Coast Environmental Law applauded BC’s Budget 2019 for delivering on funding promises to implement the government’s climate plan, CleanBC. The organization argued that funding aggressive climate action makes sense both economically and environmentally, but cautioned that there needs to be greater urgency across government to achieve BC’s climate goals.
In 1998, an internal Royal Dutch Shell memo predicted that as the impacts of climate change got worse, fossil-fuel companies might be sued in a class-action lawsuit “on the grounds of neglecting what scientists (including their own) have been saying for years …”
A growing number of communities, and lawyers, around the world are focusing their attention on global fossil fuel companies, arguing that they are legally liable for their products’ contribution to climate change and at least partially responsible for resulting climate-related costs.
VANCOUVER, BC, Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh Territories - The Standing Senate Committee on Energy, the Environment and Natural Resources voted unanimously yesterday to travel to select regions in Canada during its study of Bill C-69, which introduces important measures to improve federal environmental reviews.
VANCOUVER, BC, Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh Territories - A new report released by Canada’s Parliamentary Budget Officer challenges proponents’ claims about the financial benefits of the Trans Mountain pipeline, says West Coast Environmental Law.