On January 19, 2024, the State of Delaware filed an application for certification of interlocutory appeal to the Delaware Supreme Court from the Superior Court’s dismissal and narrowing of the State’s claims. The application identified five issues that the State argued would warrant interlocutory review: (1) whether the Clean Air Act preempts claims seeking relief for harms involving out-of-state emissions; (2) whether Delaware Supreme Court precedent limits the State’s public nuisance claim to harms to State-owned lands; (3) whether the statute of limitations bars claims under the Delaware Consumer Fraud Act; (4) whether the particularity requirement of Delaware’s civil procedure rules requires dismissal of the State’s claims alleging misrepresentations; and (5) whether claims against one of the defendants should be dismissed for insufficient service of process. The State also argued that interlocutory review was warranted because the Superior Court’s decision resolved “several important questions of first impression,” including the preemptive scope of the Clean Air Act, and that the decision regarding the particularity requirement conflicted with case law. In addition, the State argued that interlocutory review would “serve ‘considerations of justice’ and advance judicial economy.”

Lawsuit seeking to hold the fossil fuel industry liable for the physical, environmental, social, and economic consequences of climate change in Delaware.

State v. BP America Inc.

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State v. BP America Inc. - application

Filed

United States of America

Delaware

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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