The Hawaiʻi Climate Change Mitigation and Adaptation Commission conservatively estimates that the cost of lost land, beaches, roads, infrastructure, and displaced residents from sea-level rise and chronic flooding will be $19 billion by century’s end.
News & Analysis
March 9, 2020
Honolulu today became the 15th local government to sue major oil and gas companies in an effort to make them pay their fair share of climate change damages caused by fossil fuel products.
Filed in Hawaii state court, the lawsuit seeks to hold including ExxonMobil, BP, Shell, Chevron and other climate polluters accountable for damages that the companies long knew their businesses would create and intensify, including rising sea levels, coastal erosion, flooding, supercharged storms, and other extreme weather events.
“Climate change is not just a risk to human health, it risks threatening the fiscal health of our City,” said Honolulu City Council Budget Chair Joey Manahan. “This lawsuit stands up to protect Honolulu’s taxpayers by putting the responsibility to pay for climate-related damages back on Big Oil where it belongs. Fossil fuel companies have known for decades that their profits were coming directly at the expense of frontline communities like ours.”
The Hawaiʻi Climate Change Mitigation and Adaptation Commission conservatively estimates that the cost of lost land, beaches, roads, infrastructure, and displaced residents from sea-level rise and chronic flooding will be $19 billion by century’s end.
A 2019 report from the Center for Climate Integrity found that coastal and tidal communities in the lower 48 states will have to spend more than $400 billion by 2040 to pay for seawalls needed to protect infrastructure, property, and lives from climate-driven sea-level rise.
Watch Honolulu Mayor Kirk Caldwell and other officials discuss the suit: