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International lawyers vow to get tough on climate change producers

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Some lawyers have had it with companies that they say are hurting the planet. This group of international lawyers has announced a new legal initiative to prevent the fossil fuel industry from triggering a massive breakdown of the climate system.

They want U.S. state attorneys generals to go after them. 

The group, which includes preeminent legal experts on transnational corporations, climate change and human rights, intends to petition AGs to take action against investor-held fossil fuel corporations. They argue that the corporations that have known for decades that their products would trigger a breakdown of the planet’s climate system.

“The ‘right to environment’ in international law is a human right and should be respected and sustained by all nation states,” said Professor Shaista Shameem, dean of the School of Law at the University of Fiji.

“Private fossil fuel corporations have known for decades what their products would do to the Earth’s climate. Now we are trying to prevent a complete breakdown of the climate system and minimize the growing risks of an existential threat to our species,” said Dave Inder Comar, a business and human rights attorney involved with the effort.

The “climate letter” submitted to state AGs will request that they force privately held fossil fuel corporations to submit to court monitoring and cease and desist with emitting greenhouse gases.

The climate letter will also demand that fossil fuel corporations work with state governments to keep warming to 1.5 degrees C by 2100, and pay restitution and compensation for knowingly causing a climate breakdown.

If these corporations refuse to change their ways, the AGs will be asked to shutter the fossil fuel corporations to prevent an imminent climate breakdown.

The public can follow and support the climate letter efforts with the #climateletter hashtag, and at climateletter.us.

The National Jurist

The National Jurist

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