The federal district court for the District of Maryland granted the City of Annapolis’s and Anne Arundel County’s motions to remand to state court their climate change cases against fossil fuel industry defendants. The court found that the Fourth Circuit’s 2022 opinion affirming the remand order in Baltimore’s climate case foreclosed all but two of the defendants’ arguments for federal jurisdiction in these two cases. Regarding the first remaining argument, the court found that the defendants’ “materially expanded evidentiary record” in support of federal-officer removal did not address the deficiency the Fourth Circuit identified in Baltimore’s case—that the record did not establish that the defendants’ alleged concealment of the climate harms of fossil fuels was related to the defendants’ purported federally authorized actions. In their second remaining argument, the defendants contended that the case satisfied the requirements for Grable jurisdiction because the case necessarily implicated First Amendment concerns by targeting speech on matters of “public concern.” The district court declined to extend the “slim category” of Grable jurisdiction cases to include state tort claims involving speech on matters of public concern, finding that “[s]uch an expansive holding would raise federalism concerns and counter the mandate for federal courts to ‘strictly construe’ removal statutes.” The district court also denied the defendants’ motions to stay the proceedings pending the Supreme Court’s resolution of the Baltimore case (where a petition for writ of certiorari seeking review of the Fourth Circuit’s affirmance of the remand order was anticipated). The court stayed execution of the remand order for 30 days but said it was not amenable to a further stay on the present record. The parties were directed to establish a briefing schedule for any request for an additional stay pending appeal that would allow the court a week to rule on the request before the 30-day stay expired.

Lawsuit seeking to hold fossil fuel companies liable for the consequences of climate change in Anne Arundel County, Maryland.

Anne Arundel County v. BP p.l.c.

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Federal Court Sent Annapolis and Anne Arundel County Climate Cases Back to State Court

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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

Either money or something of monetary value is transferred between two or more organisations, people or countries.

Coastal zone and marine-related actions and measures to adapt and increase resilience to climate change

Actions or measures to adapt freshwater, coastal and marine systems to climate change.

Replacing technologies that burn fossil fuels directly with alternatives powered by electricity.

Risks to the ecosystem health of the marine environment, including ocean warming, ocean acidification, and ocean deoxygenation, harming biodiversity, species health, ecosystem services, and coastal community livelihoods.

Extreme weather refers to events where a weather variable exceeds (or falls below) a threshold. Meaning it is significantly different from the average or usual weather pattern.

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.

Fossil gas, commonly known as natural gas, is a fossil fuel consisting chiefly of methane with smaller amounts of other hydrocarbons and trace gases, found in underground deposits.

Any compulsory, unrequited payment to the government levied on corporations or individuals. This can be for environmental reasons, such as introducing a Carbon tax to set a price that emitters must pay for the greenhouse gases they emit.

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

Activities that involve planning, designing and building infrastructure, residential, and commercial structures.

This sector involves activities to move goods and people, alongside the storage of products.

This sector creates and distributes information and entertainment through television, radio, print, and digital platforms.

This sector includes firms and individuals offering specialised expertise in fields such as law, accounting, consulting, science and engineering.

Any substance with chemical properties that can cause physical harm to people or damage the environment, including ammonia, carbon monoxide, phosphine, chlorine, arsenic, cadmium, mercury, pesticides, dioxins, microplastics, benzene, asbestos, aflatoxins, fluoride, methanol, and toxins from marine sources.

Slow onset events evolve gradually from incremental changes over many years or from increased frequency or intensity of recurring events. As defined in the Cancun Adaptation Framework (2010), slow onset events include risks and impacts from rising temperatures, desertification, biodiversity loss, land and forest degradation, glacial retreat, ocean acidification, sea level rise, and salinization.

Federal Court Sent Annapolis and Anne Arundel County Climate Cases Back to State Court

Policy instrument

Risk

Fossil fuel

Greenhouse gas

Economic sector

Adaptation/resilience

Finance