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Climate Lawsuit
The suit was filed against two U.S. government agencies – the Export Import Bank (Ex-Im) and the Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC). Ex-Im and OPIC are taxpayer funded agencies that provide financing and loans to U.S. corporations for overseas projects that commercial banks deem too risky.
Update: February 6, 2009 — A federal lawsuit that sought to force two U.S. agencies to address the global warming implications of their overseas financing activities was settled today after more than six years; the suit established important legal precedents related to global warming.
Friends of the Earth, Greenpeace, and the city of Boulder, Colorado filed the suit in August 2002 and were later joined by the California cities of Arcata, Santa Monica and Oakland. The Plaintiffs alleged that the Export-Import Bank of the United States (ExIm)and the Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC) illegally provided more than $32 billion in financing and insurance to fossil fuel projects over 10 years without assessing whether the projects contributed to global warming or impacted the U.S. environment, as they were required to do under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). By 2003, the fossil fuel projects financed by the two agencies from 1990 to 2003 accounted for nearly eight percent of the world's carbon dioxide emissions, or nearly one third of total U.S. emissions.
In August 2005, a federal judge found that the Plaintiffs suffering economic and other damages from climate change had standing to sue under NEPA, opening up the courthouse doors for the first time to those injured by climate change. Testimony from the case, which successfully asserted that climate change is real and caused by human activities, later informed the Mass. v EPA decision, in which the Supreme Court held that carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases are pollutants that can be regulated under the Clean Air Act.
Under the settlement agreed to today, the Export-Import Bank will begin taking carbon dioxide emissions into account in evaluating fossil fuel projects and create an organization-wide carbon policy. The Overseas Private Investment Corporation will establish a goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions associated with projects by 20 percent over the next ten years. Both agencies will commit to increasing financing for renewable energy.
The settlement represents an important victory in the continuing campaign to hold both agencies accountable for their contributions to climate change.
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