USA: Honolulu sues fossil fuel companies over climate impacts
In March 2020, the City of Honolulu filed a lawsuit against several oil and gas companies, seeking monetary damages to help pay for costs associated with climate impacts like sea level rise and flooding.
The lawsuit is based on claims of nuisance, failure to warn, and trespass and alleges that the climate impacts facing the city stem from the oil companies’ decades-long campaign to mislead policymakers and the public about the dangers of fossil fuels.
Honolulu is already experiencing climate impacts including extreme heat and precipitation, severe storms and flooding, and coastal erosion.
The defendants include BP, BHP Group, Aloha Petroleum, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, Phillips 66, ExxonMobil, Marathon Petroleum, Royal Dutch Shell and Sunoco. They argue that the case should be heard in federal court because "state courts cannot rule on interstate pollution".
They have filed several motions to dismiss the case, two of which were denied by the first circuit court in Hawaii. The defendant's appeals were heard in August 2023 by the Hawaii Supreme Court, almost coinciding with deadly wildfires in Maui.
In October 2023 the Hawaii's Supreme Court allowed the case to proceed to trial, rejecting the fossil fuel companies' argument that it sought to regulate emissions or interstate commerce. The court clarified that the lawsuit focused on alleged deceptive marketing practices that caused harm in Hawaii.
In February 2024, fossil fuel companies petitioned the US Supreme Court to review the Hawaii Supreme Court’s decision, hoping to block Honolulu’s lawsuit from moving forward. The companies argued that regulating interstate pollution falls under federal law, not state jurisdiction. In response, Honolulu’s lawyers contended that the case seeks to hold the oil and gas industry accountable under Hawai‘i law for deliberately concealing and misrepresenting the climate change impacts of their fossil fuel products.
On 13 January 2025, the US Supreme Court declined to hear the fossil fuel industry’s appeal, clearing the way for Honolulu’s climate accountability lawsuit to proceed towards trial.
Chevron has filed a third motion to dismiss the case on the grounds that it violates the company’s first amendment rights. That motion was also dismissed by a Hawaii court last year and is moving through a separate appeals process.
The case is ongoing.