Emissions challenges likely to be ineffective

Attempts to curb greenhouse gases by legal challenge have had little result in the US and are unlikely to produce much over the next few years, according to academic research.

An analysis of 178 federal and state lawsuits and their pleading patterns suggests that current remedies are limited and that emitters have little to gain from supporting changes in the law. The article, ‘Pleading Patterns and the Role of Litigation as a Driver of Federal Climate Change Legislation’ appears in the ‘Jurimetrics’ journal. Co-author Juscelino F Colares, Case Western Reserve School of Law professor, says: ‘Legal remedies under current law are very limited. Due to the diffuse nature of climate change effects (emissions know no boundaries, and their effects are spread around the globe), linking an emission source to any localized climate change effect is very difficult.’ He also believes that emitters have little to gain in supporting change, given that litigaiton is producting so little in the way of results by campaigners at the moment. Source: Phys.org

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