IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/nat/natcli/v8y2018i9d10.1038_s41558-018-0240-8.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Strategies in and outcomes of climate change litigation in the United States

Author

Listed:
  • Sabrina McCormick

    (The George Washington University)

  • Robert L. Glicksman

    (The George Washington University Law School)

  • Samuel J. Simmens

    (The George Washington University)

  • LeRoy Paddock

    (The George Washington University Law School)

  • Daniel Kim

    (The George Washington University)

  • Brittany Whited

    (New York University School of Law)

Abstract

The courts have played a central role in climate policy, including the landmark Supreme Court case that led to the mandatory regulation of greenhouse gases by the United States. A wide variety of litigants have used the courts to affect policy outcomes at all scales. Therefore, to understand how the court addresses climate change is critical. Here we constructed and analysed a database of all the United State domestic climate lawsuits 1990–2016 (873), and collected qualitative data in the form of 78 in-depth interviews with litigants, involved scientists and advocates. We find proregulation litigants tend to win renewable energy and energy efficiency cases, and more frequently lose coal-fired power plant cases. Strategies such as the use of climate science and other science as well as collaboration in specific types of coalitions affect the outcomes of cases. Efforts to affect climate policy should consider these trends and outcomes.

Suggested Citation

  • Sabrina McCormick & Robert L. Glicksman & Samuel J. Simmens & LeRoy Paddock & Daniel Kim & Brittany Whited, 2018. "Strategies in and outcomes of climate change litigation in the United States," Nature Climate Change, Nature, vol. 8(9), pages 829-833, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:natcli:v:8:y:2018:i:9:d:10.1038_s41558-018-0240-8
    DOI: 10.1038/s41558-018-0240-8
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41558-018-0240-8
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1038/s41558-018-0240-8?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Shaikh Eskander & Sam Fankhauser & Joana Setzer, 2021. "Global Lessons from Climate Change Legislation and Litigation," Environmental and Energy Policy and the Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 2(1), pages 44-82.
    2. Ryan Gunderson & Claiton Fyock, 2022. "Are fossil fuel CEOs responsible for climate change? Social structure and criminal law approaches to climate litigation," Journal of Environmental Studies and Sciences, Springer;Association of Environmental Studies and Sciences, vol. 12(2), pages 378-385, June.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nat:natcli:v:8:y:2018:i:9:d:10.1038_s41558-018-0240-8. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.nature.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.