On October 17, 2018, the federal district court for the Western District of Washington granted King County’s motion to stay proceedings in the County’s lawsuit seeking to hold fossil fuel companies liable for climate change impacts. The court ordered proceedings to be stayed until the Ninth Circuit issues a decision in San Francisco’s and Oakland’s appeals of the dismissal of their similar lawsuits. The district court found that it was “unlikely that a stay would result in any significant damage or cause any hardship to any party” and that there was “substantial overlap” between King County’s lawsuit and the San Francisco and Oakland lawsuits, “particularly with regard to how and whether state-law public nuisance claims are preempted by federal common law.”

Public nuisance and trespass action brought by King County in Washington State against fossil fuel companies seeking funding of climate change adaptation program.

King County v. BP p.l.c.

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Federal Court Granted King County’s Request to Stay Climate 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