NZ Students for Climate Solutions and UK Youth Climate Coalition v. Board of BP

Students for Climate Solutions New Zealand and the UK Youth Climate Coalition have submitted a request to the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court to open an investigation against BP Senior Executives. The submission argues that BP Senior Executives allegedly committed a crime against humanity by knowingly causing and perpetuating climate change while pursuing activities in the oil and gas industry. The submission alleges that since the 1950s, BP Senior Executives have been aware of the climate implications of the corporation’s oil and gas activities because of internal studies conducted into greenhouse gases. The results of these studies have allegedly been withheld from the public. The submission further argues that as of the 1990s, BP Senior Executives have admitted their role in perpetuating climate change in company documentaries where a link was made between the corporation’s activities and climate change. In prioritizing profits from oil activities, BP Senior Executives are alleged to have engaged in the following harmful behaviors: - Creating doubt by sowing distrust in climate change science - Entrenching dependency on BP’s petroleum products on the false pretense that they are a necessary and viable solution to climate change - Causing delays to urgent climate policy by portraying climate change as a far-future issue - Fostering deception of governments and the wider public through misleading marketing of BP as a renewable energy company, using strategic communications to shift responsibilities for carbon emissions onto individuals, and promoting false solutions, such as yet-to-be- invented technology, that prolong the use of fossil fuels - Ensuring dominance through attempts to control and influence political processes via systematic lobbying and campaign financing. The submission seeks damages from BP Senior Executives, pursuant to Article 8 of the Paris Agreement, for their role in the issue of climate change.