On January 30, 2023, the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals denied fossil fuel companies’ emergency motion for a stay pending appeal of a district court’s order remanding to D.C. Superior Court the District of Columbia’s lawsuit alleging that the companies violated D.C.’s consumer protection law by misleading consumers about their products’ contribution to climate change. The D.C. Circuit found that the companies had not met the “high standard” for demonstrating irreparable injury, noting that even “substantial and unrecoupable” litigation expenses would not meet that standard. The D.C. Circuit also found that the companies did not show a “likely,” as opposed to “possible,” injury from potential deprivation of their right to proceed in federal court. The D.C. Circuit set an expedited briefing schedule for the companies’ appeal of the remand order, with the opening brief due on March 1, D.C.’s brief due on March 31, and the companies’ reply brief due on April 12. On February 15, the federal district court remanded the case to D.C. Superior Court.

Lawsuit filed by the District of Columbia against oil and gas companies for allegedly violating the Consumer Protection Procedures Act by misleading consumers about “the central role their products play in causing climate change.”

District of Columbia v. Exxon Mobil Corp.

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D.C. Circuit Declined to Stay Remand Order in D.C.’s Consumer Protection Case Against Fossil Fuel Companies

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An aim to achieve a quantifiable outcome within a given time-frame, set by an institution such as a national government.

Policy instruments are techniques or tools used by governing authorities to promote certain policies in order to achieve predetermined goals. Put simply, instruments are how a government tries to achieve its goals, with this taxonomy being focused on national policy instruments.

Risk is the potential for adverse consequences resulting from the dynamic interplay between (climate-related) hazards, exposure, and vulnerability of affected human or ecological systems.

Groups  of people who are adversely affected by climate change or the response to it

A set of principles, processes, and practices that build economic and political power to shift from an extractive economy to a regenerative economy.

Justice is the ethical and political framework that addresses fairness, including issues of responsibility, rights, and structural inequity.

Renewable energy means all forms of energy produced from renewable sources in a sustainable manner.

Fossil fuel is a generic term for non-renewable energy sources such as coal, fossil gas, and oil (including crude oil, and petroleum products), that can be used for electricity and heat generation. Fossil fuels are hydrocarbons formed from pressurised and heated organic material buried over millions of years.

Molecules in the atmosphere that play a key role in the greenhouse effect by trapping heat radiating from Earth’s surface.

Area of the economy in which actors engage in identical or related activities.

In human systems, the process of adjustment to actual or expected climate change and its effects, in order to moderate harm, increase resilience or exploit beneficial opportunities. In natural systems, the process of adjustment to actual climate change and its effects; human intervention may facilitate adjustment to expected climate change and its effects.

The management and allocation of funds, assets and investments to meet various objectives

Oil is a combustible liquid fossil fuel composed mainly of hydrocarbons, occurring as crude oil and refined into petroleum products such as petrol, diesel and kerosene.

The activities of industries that transforms raw materials into finished goods through industrial processes.

D.C. Circuit Declined to Stay Remand Order in D.C.’s Consumer Protection Case Against Fossil Fuel Companies

Fossil fuel

Economic sector