Press Releases
August 12, 2020
WEST LONG BRANCH, N.J. — Leaders in the fields of climate science, sustainability, and environmental law will speak at an online Monmouth University event on Wednesday, August 19, about the scientific and legal basis for holding fossil fuel companies accountable for the financial costs that New Jersey is facing as a result of climate change.
Last month, a New Jersey Senate committee approved a bipartisan resolution, SR57, calling on the state to “pursue legal action against fossil fuel companies for damages caused by climate change.” Several local governments, including the Boards of Chosen Freeholders of Union and Atlantic counties, and the council boroughs of Bradley Beach and Sea Bright, have passed similar resolutions in recent months.
More than a dozen states, cities, and counties across the country have sued major fossil fuel companies to recover costs associated with damages caused by climate change, while Massachusetts, Minnesota, and the District of Columbia have sued fossil fuel companies for defrauding the public about climate science, in violation of state consumer protection laws.
What: “Accountability for Climate Change Harms in New Jersey: Scientific, Legal and Policy Perspectives”
Who:
Panelists will include:
Nathaly Agosto Filion, Chief Sustainability Officer of the City of Newark
Brenda Ekwurzel, director of climate science for the Union of Concerned Scientists Climate & Energy Program
Marco Simons, General Counsel, EarthRights International
Randall Abate, Monmouth University Rechnitz Family/Urban Coast Institute Endowed Chair in Marine and Environmental Law and Policy, will moderate.
Where: RSVP to join online at https://www.monmouth.edu/uci/event-register/
When: 3:00 p.m., Wednesday, August 19, 2020
The event is free and open to the public. It is organized by the Center for Climate Integrity, the Union of Concerned Scientists, and Monmouth University.
Background: Since 2017, more than a dozen city and county governments in California, Colorado, Hawaii, Maryland, New York, and Washington, along with the states of Massachusetts, Minnesota, and Rhode Island, and the District of Columbia, have brought lawsuits under different claims to recover billions of dollars damages caused by the oil and gas industry’s deception about climate change. Learn about those cases here.
This year, three separate federal appeals courts ruled that cases in California, Colorado, and Maryland could proceed in state court.
A 2019 study from the Center for Climate Integrity estimated that New Jersey will have to spend $25 billion on seawalls by 2040 to protect lives, homes, and infrastructure from sea-level rise, the 6th highest price tag for the lower 48 U.S. states.