In a lawsuit alleging that the New Jersey Pension Fund’s investments in oil and gas companies violated the plaintiffs’ right to a stable environment under the New Jersey Constitution, the New Jersey Appellate Division affirmed a trial court order denying their motion to amend their complaint under the New Jersey Civil Rights Act (NJCRA) to add a substantive due process claim. The original complaint alleged that the State violated the public trust doctrine by investing in companies that the State had alleged were engaged in destruction of public assets in the New Jersey attorney general’s climate change <a href="https://climatecasechart.com/case/platkin-v-exxon-mobil-corp/">lawsuit</a> against fossil fuel companies. The plaintiffs also asserted breach of duty to pension beneficiaries. In a nonprecedential opinion, the appellate court concluded that denial of the motion to amend was proper because amendment would have been a “fruitless endeavor.” The court stated that “relying on the Public Trust Doctrine to find a fundamental substantive due process right to a stable environment takes us far afield from our historic applications of the Public Trust Doctrine so far,” which included disputes over access to and ownership and regulation of natural resources such as the shoreline. The court further found that even if the public trust doctrine related to harm and danger to natural resources, a fundamental right to “a stable environment” was “far broader than the right to prevent public-trust assets from environmental harm” and could not serve as a basis for a NJCRA claim. The appellate court also found that the pension statutes did not provide a basis for finding a fundamental right to a stable climate. In addition, the court declined to remand the proceeding for review of whether the pension fund’s investments in oil and gas companies were arbitrary and capricious in light of State policies on climate change. The court concluded that discretionary investments by the Director of the Division of Investments were nonjusticiable political questions.

Lawsuit alleging that the New Jersey Pension Fund’s investments in oil and gas companies violated the plaintiffs’ right to a stable environment under the New Jersey Constitution.

Dawson v. Murphy

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New Jersey Appellate Court Found No Right to “Stable Environment” in State Constitution, Rejected Challenges to State Pension Fund Investments in Oil and Gas 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.

New Jersey Appellate Court Found No Right to “Stable Environment” in State Constitution, Rejected Challenges to State Pension Fund Investments in Oil and Gas Companies

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