An Illinois Circuit Court dismissed claims against the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District, Maine Township, and Park Ridge in a lawsuit brought by people whose property sustained damage in floods in 2008. The plaintiffs’ charges included that these municipal defendants, which had jurisdiction over a stormwater system, caused the flooding, due in part to their failure to prepare for climate change impacts. The court held that the public duty rule exempted the municipal defendants from liability. 

Action against defendants, including municipal defendants, whose actions or inaction allegedly contributed to property damage during floods in 2008.

Tzakis v. Berger Excavating Contractors, Inc.

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Tzakis v. Berger Excavating Contractors, Inc. - order

Filed

United States of America

Illinois

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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.

Actions or measures to adapt freshwater systems to climate change.

Actions to adapt human health, healthcare systems and well-being to climate change.

Actions to adapt and increase the resilience of rural and urban infrastructure and settlements to climate change.

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

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.

This sector involves managing waste treatment, sanitation, pollution control and environmental cleanup.

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

Activities of government agencies and institutions that provide public services, enforce laws and manage public resources.

This sector involves the distribution, treatment, and conservation of water resources.

Heavy precipitation refers to any form of weather where substances fall from the sky, including rain, snow, sleet, or hail.

Tzakis v. Berger Excavating Contractors, Inc. - order

Risk

Economic sector

Adaptation/resilience

Finance