A Rising Tide: Exploring the Viability of Pursuing Climate Change Accountability Through Securities Fraud Litigation

The globe is feeling the intensifying detrimental impacts of climate change, and with these impacts comes increasing public consciousness of the urgent need to mitigate or slow climate change processes. However, as this need has become clearer and more widespread, so has the reality that prior attempts to combat climate change through international treaties, domestic government action, and instances of climate change litigation have largely fallen flat.

Importantly, the energy sector is the largest contributor to greenhouse gas (“GHG”) emissions both across the globe and in the United States. In 2018, this sector contributed 91% of the United States’ GHG emissions. While the energy sector is critical to the functioning of our global society and economy, further progress toward widespread adoption of sustainable, non-carbon intensive energy resources is necessary to combat the climate crisis. This Comment centers on an emerging trend in combatting climate change: filing securities fraud claims against Carbon Majors to motivate climate action.

This Comment argues for the viability and validity of pursuing climate change securities fraud litigation to hold Carbon Majors—GHG-emitting energy corporations like ExxonMobil, BP, Shell, and Chevron—accountable for their outsized role in climate change. Two recent cases have attempted, or are attempting, to accomplish just that: People v. ExxonMobil and Commonwealth v. ExxonMobil. These cases highlight the missteps and merits of climate change securities fraud litigation, thus informing future successful claims. Ultimately, this Comment sets forth climate change securities fraud litigation against Carbon Majors—both by State Attorneys General and by non-state, apolitical shareholders—as one strategy that will finally move the needle on climate action by financially encouraging the renewable energy transition.