The U.S. Supreme Court denied youth plaintiffs’ petition for writ of certiorari seeking review of the Ninth Circuit’s May 2024 order directing the federal district court for the District of Oregon to dismiss their second amended complaint in the climate change lawsuit they filed in 2015. The second amended complaint sought a declaration that the U.S.’s national energy system and a federal energy statute providing for authorizations of certain natural gas imports and exports violated the Constitution by causing harmful conditions that result from climate change. The district court had allowed the plaintiffs to amend their complaint after the Ninth Circuit ruled in 2020 that the plaintiffs lacked standing because their alleged harms from climate change were not redressable by the courts. In 2024, the Ninth Circuit granted the federal government’s petition for writ of mandamus and ordered the court to dismiss the case, rejecting the plaintiffs’ arguments that the Ninth Circuit’s mandate did not preclude amendment and that an intervening Supreme Court decision changed the law on redressability of declaratory judgments.

Action by young plaintiffs asserting that the federal government violated their constitutional rights by causing dangerous carbon dioxide concentrations. [Due to a technical issue, some documents are currently not available.]

Juliana v. United States

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Supreme Court Denied Juliana Plaintiffs’ Certiorari Petition

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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

Direct investments by the governments using public funds. This can be to support climate initiatives or integrate climate into other projects.

A ban is a legal action that prevents the sale or supply of a product or service, or that recalls a product from the market. Examples are bans on SF6, greenwashing, fossil fuel advertisement or single-use plastics.