These lawsuits are seeking financial penalties because of the deception perpetuated by ExxonMobil to its shareholders and the public about company prospects in the face of potential climate regulation.
There is debate, however, over the validity of these lawsuits. Yet most of the major fossil fuel lawsuits focus not on emissions responsibility but on corporate attempts to spread misinformation about climate change. Holding the fossil fuel industry accountable becomes more complex when one considers that most of the companies are diversified into various products, which are not all equally harmful to the environment. With current prices of fossil fuels, there is not enough incentive for consumers to limit their purchases of fossil fuels or for the companies to produce less of their harmful products.
First, fossil fuels are artificially cheapened by enormous subsidies that make the energy sector an uneven playing field for alternative energy sources. Second, fossil fuel use has a negative externality — namely, GHG emissions — that cause climate change. In order to reduce these emissions, climate solutions must therefore eliminate fossil fuel subsidies. This can help make the energy sector a truly even playing field, allowing renewable energy sources to compete fairly with fossil fuels and proving cheaper in the long run.
Carbon taxes , government taxes on products that produce GHG emissions, can also help eliminate the negative externalities of fossil fuel use and increase fair competition in the energy market. They are effective because they split accountability across the economy between consumers, who pay more for products that result in GHG emissions, and producers, who face reduced demand for their product due to higher prices and a loss of cash flow through payment of the tax.
To avoid this dilemma, Heede argued for a carbon tax that would rise incrementally in price over time. Utilizing a carbon tax in this way would be an effective first step towards pushing the economy away from GHG emitting fuels that cause climate chaos. Yet one issue with a carbon tax relates to the reason why it works to begin with — it affects both producers and consumers of fossil fuels.
However, Furman pointed out that a carbon tax would result in a huge amount of money for the federal government.
While this argument is partially true, many of these emissions come from attempts to make production as convenient as possible for these corporations: A purposeful lack of research into renewable energy makes fossil fuels a much more convenient form of energy for production. This two-pronged issue could be solved by implementing stronger regulations on energy production and increasing funding for research into renewable energy.
First, people can try to live as carbon neutral as possible, either by using motorized vehicles less frequently, eating less beef or using less electricity. But an even greater way to help is to strongly advocate for the solutions that will create an even more significant change.
This can include protesting, directly contacting public officials or doing public outreach. They resisted ferociously, and a mechanism was only agreed once it had been purged of any references to compensation. This was the atmosphere of hostility and distrust into which James wandered, naively hoping that politicians would like to hear about her work.
Analysis: What would a fair UN climate change deal look like? Even scientists have pushed back on their work. An article in by Mike Hulme, Saffron J. They warned that the new and uncertain science could create a new quibble that would handily detract from the actual business of disbursing money to countries in need. The science of attribution is progressing quickly, says Allen, but they are still a long way off being able to say for certain whether any one extreme weather event occurred as a direct result of climate change.
And certainty varies between the types of event. That adage feels truer every day. While us plebs keep being told we have to change our habits, the masters of the universe have made it abundantly clear that they have no intention of changing theirs.
This article is more than 3 months old. Arwa Mahdawi.
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