Jan 12, 2017 – While Donald Trump is trying to reverse US climate policy in recent years, individual states are repeatedly torpedoing Trump’s agenda. With a new venture, New York City now wants to sue several oil companies for damages due to climate change and withdraw from oil investments. The claims for damages are directed against the large oil companies Exxon Mobil, BP, Chevron, Conoco Philipps and Shell. A Shell spokesman immediately denied the allegations, speaking of “complex challenges facing society” on climate change that must be addressed through “good politics and culture change”.
For New York Mayor Bill de Blasio, however, it is clear that the oil companies are part of the problem. “We are bringing the fight against climate change back to the oil companies who knew the effects and deceived the public in order to protect their profits,” de Blasio told a report from Deutsche Welle following. And deceptions and cover-ups have long been proven. Scientists paid by Exxon were one of the reasons why the United States signed the Kyoto Protocol at the end of the 1990s not signed. With the election of Trump, climate skeptics are now on the up again.
The climate change is noticeable
However, under the leadership of New York and California, over 40 cities and municipalities are now opposing the plans of Trump and his stakeholders. And in many parts of the United States, climate change is already noticeable. Extreme heat and drought in California, as well as hurricanes and floods along the entire east coast, cost the United States $ 360 billion a year. This corresponds to around half of the annual economic growth in the country.
New York is also repeatedly hit by devastating storms. In one of the strongest hurricanes in recent years, Cyclone Sandy, life in New York came to a standstill for days. At least 53 people died as a result of the storm and the monetary damage amounted to 53 billion US dollars. So that New York does not suffer such a fate again as soon as possible, the city wants to take precautionary measures to protect particularly low-lying areas such as Manhattan from flooding. “Now that climate change is getting worse, it is up to the oil companies, whose greed has put us in this position, to bear the cost of making New York safer and more resilient,” says Bill de Blasio.
Withdraw coal from the oil industry
While they are suing the oil companies for compensation, those in charge in New York want to say goodbye to investments in fossil fuels. Your 189 billion pension fund, of which five billion have so far been invested in the coal and oil industry, is to join the so-called divestment movement. The movement is mobilizing global investors, both public and private, to withdraw from investing in climate-damaging companies.
However, it will be a few years before this process is completed, as fund managers first have to develop appropriate sales strategies. Even a lawsuit against the oil companies will take years, New York Mayor de Blasio is sure and compared the lawsuit with previous lawsuits against the tobacco industry. These were tedious, but ultimately successful. mf
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