In the United States’ lawsuit seeking to prevent the State of Hawaii (the State) and the Hawaii governor and attorney general (collectively the “State defendants”) from filing a lawsuit against fossil fuel companies to hold them liable for harms resulting from climate change, the federal district court for the District of Hawaii granted the State defendants’ motion for judgment on the pleadings and dismissed the case with prejudice. The court found that the U.S. failed to allege any of the elements of standing. First, the court found that the U.S.—which filed its lawsuit one day before the State filed a state court lawsuit against fossil fuel companies—did not allege a concrete injury in fact because the U.S.’s complaint relied on conclusory allegations and a speculative theory of harm. The court also found that the complaint did not provide a basis to find that a lawsuit filed by the State “would predictably result” in harm to the U.S. The court also found that the declaratory relief sought by the U.S. would not redress the alleged injury and that federal courts would not grant injunctive relief halting a state court lawsuit based on a hypothetical injury to the United States. The court also found that the U.S.’s “abstract, theoretical concerns” regarding the State’s potential lawsuit were not redressable. Although standing analysis is based on the facts that existed at the time a complaint is filed, the court also concluded that consideration of the state court complaint would not alter the conclusion that the U.S. lacked standing, given that the U.S.’s complaint “did not correctly predict the nature of the state law tort claims” the defendants would assert and given that the U.S.’s theory of harm was still based on “a series of abstract harms and contingencies about hypothetical actions third parties may take.”

Lawsuit brought by the Trump administration to block an anticipated climate lawsuit by the State of Hawaii against fossil fuel industry defendants.

United States v. Hawaii

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Hawaii Federal Court Ruled that United States Lacked Standing to Bring Case to Block Hawaii’s Climate Suit 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

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

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.

People with different national or cultural traditions from the dominant population

Social and cultural groups that share collective ancestral ties to the lands and natural resources where they live, occupy or from which they have been displaced

People whose health, both mental and physical, makes them more vulnerable to the effects of climate change

This sector involves the wholesale and retail selling of goods.

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

Hawaii Federal Court Ruled that United States Lacked Standing to Bring Case to Block Hawaii’s Climate Suit Against Fossil Fuel Companies

Impacted group

Fossil fuel

Greenhouse gas

Economic sector

Finance