Holding the Carbon Majors Accountable: The Global Push to Expose Climate Lies and Demand Reparative Justice
- Eric Anders
- Apr 16
- 6 min read
As California, Massachusetts, New York City, and other jurisdictions in the Global North and South move forward with lawsuits against Big Oil, a broader international reckoning is underway. The case against fossil fuel corporations no longer rests solely on moral outrage or political critique. Instead, it is increasingly grounded in a complex body of evidence that shows these corporations not only knew about the dangers of climate change decades ago, but also actively funded misinformation campaigns to sow doubt, delay regulation, and protect profits. These revelations, now at the heart of litigation strategies worldwide, underscore a growing international movement to ensure that the fossil fuel industry’s role in accelerating the climate crisis is legally recognized, financially penalized, and fully exposed to public scrutiny.
The Legal Foundations: "Smoke and Fumes"
One of the most significant early attempts to document this phenomenon came from the Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL). In their 2017 report, Smoke and Fumes: The Legal and Evidentiary Basis for Holding Big Oil Accountable for Climate Change, CIEL meticulously traces how fossil fuel companies, much like Big Tobacco before them, undertook sophisticated public relations campaigns designed to obscure scientific consensus and manipulate public perception. The report provides damning evidence that companies such as ExxonMobil and Shell possessed accurate scientific assessments of anthropogenic global warming by the late 1950s and early 1960s—but chose to obscure these findings in public communications. This was not merely negligence; it was willful deception.
CIEL’s report outlines the legal implications of this history: the fossil fuel industry may be liable not just for the emissions it produced, but for the damages caused by its campaign of disinformation. This opens up a second axis of culpability—informational harm—through which courts may interpret climate deception as fraud, public nuisance, or even violations of international human rights law.
The Human Rights Lens: The UN Special Rapporteur’s Intervention
In June 2023, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Human Rights and the Environment released a powerful statement titled “Paying Polluters: The Fossil Fuel Industry’s Toll on Human Rights.” This document reframes climate change accountability through the lens of global human rights, particularly the rights to life, health, food, and a livable environment.
The Rapporteur’s statement explicitly accuses fossil fuel corporations of “prioritizing profit over human survival,” and supports litigation, regulatory action, and financial penalties for companies that contributed to climate misinformation. Crucially, the statement also supports the emerging notion of energy reparations—that fossil fuel companies, having unjustly enriched themselves through decades of deception and exploitation, owe direct material restitution to the communities most affected by climate chaos.
The call to redirect fossil fuel profits toward clean energy infrastructure, especially in Indigenous and Global South regions disproportionately impacted by climate breakdown, is gaining traction in climate justice circles. Earthrise Équité is one of several emerging organizations working to operationalize this principle.
The "Exxon Knew" Investigations: A Smoking Gun
Few journalistic efforts have had as deep and lasting an impact on climate litigation as the “Exxon Knew” series by InsideClimate News. Beginning in 2015, investigative reporters uncovered internal Exxon documents showing that the company had conducted its own climate research beginning in the 1970s—and had reached conclusions that largely aligned with what mainstream climate science has since confirmed.
Exxon’s own scientists warned that continued fossil fuel use would raise global temperatures, melt the Arctic, and lead to catastrophic sea level rise. Yet even as the company refined its internal projections, it publicly funded think tanks and front groups that denied or downplayed climate change. This deliberate disinformation has become a central pillar in the lawsuits now underway in various U.S. states and municipalities.
Importantly, the "Exxon Knew" documents offer a rare glimpse into the deliberate psychological, rhetorical, and financial engineering behind public doubt—a doubt that has cost humanity decades of crucial climate action. They also provide plaintiffs in climate lawsuits with a paper trail of corporate knowledge, intent, and concealment that could satisfy the legal requirements for fraud or misrepresentation.
Quantifying Responsibility: The Carbon Majors Database
While disinformation is central to the legal strategy of many suits, there is also an effort to link specific climate impacts to specific emitters. This is where the work of the Climate Accountability Institute (CAI) becomes indispensable. CAI has developed the Carbon Majors database, which meticulously traces emissions from major fossil fuel companies—public and state-owned alike—since the mid-20th century.
Their findings are stark: Just 100 fossil fuel producers are responsible for over 70% of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions since 1988. The implications for liability are profound. This data allows for the apportioning of climate damage—rising sea levels, extreme heat events, and crop failures—based on the proportional emissions of specific companies. As attribution science becomes more precise, so too do the legal possibilities for holding corporations financially accountable for their contributions to climate breakdown.
CAI’s work also complements the call for reparations: if the historical contributions of fossil fuel giants can be quantified, then so too can the amount they should owe for adaptation, resilience, and recovery projects in the most affected areas.
Global Litigation Trends: The Sabin Center’s Climate Litigation Databases
Finally, no discussion of the international movement for climate accountability would be complete without reference to the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law at Columbia University. The Sabin Center maintains the most comprehensive public databases on climate change litigation globally, documenting over 2,500 cases across more than 50 countries.
Their research shows a sharp increase in lawsuits that target fossil fuel producers not only for environmental harm but for disinformation, obstruction of climate policy, and even human rights violations. Cases are underway in the Netherlands, France, the Philippines, and Brazil—not only in U.S. courtrooms. Legal arguments are diversifying, with some cases invoking constitutional rights, others citing international treaties, and still others using novel tort claims like “climate deceit” or “atmospheric trust.”
Significantly, the Sabin Center has tracked a growing use of corporate law to pursue climate accountability—not just through government prosecution, but also through shareholder actions, consumer fraud claims, and investor litigation. These cases reveal that public pressure is no longer the only mechanism to challenge the power of fossil fuel companies—legal action is becoming a powerful, multi-pronged front in the fight for climate justice.
Conclusion: A Reckoning Underway
The international movement to hold fossil fuel corporations accountable for climate misinformation is no longer in its infancy. It is maturing rapidly—armed with powerful evidence, compelling legal theories, and a deepening commitment to justice. What began as a series of isolated lawsuits has coalesced into a transnational legal, moral, and epistemic campaign: one that seeks not just compensation for damages but the exposure of lies, the reparation of harms, and the redefinition of energy justice.
As this movement grows, its implications extend beyond the courtroom. They touch how we understand responsibility, power, and truth in the Anthropocene. And they remind us that justice—like the climate—is not a matter of distant concern, but of urgent, collective action.
Let me know if you'd like to adapt this into a bilingual version for Earthrise Équité's site, or develop a follow-up post on energy reparations and climate disinformation in the Global South.
Addendum: Essential Research for Understanding Climate Litigation Against Fossil Fuel Corporations
Here are five well-sourced references to support research into the international legal and political movement to hold fossil fuel corporations accountable for climate misinformation:
1. Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL) – “Smoke and Fumes: The Legal and Evidentiary Basis for Holding Big Oil Accountable for Climate Change” (2017)
Why it’s useful: This foundational report documents the fossil fuel industry’s decades-long campaign of climate misinformation and the legal strategies emerging to hold these corporations accountable. It provides both legal arguments and primary source documentation, including internal oil company memos.
2. UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights and the Environment – “Paying Polluters: The Fossil Fuel Industry’s Toll on Human Rights” (2023)
URL: https://www.ohchr.org/en/statements/2023/06/paying-polluters
Why it’s useful: This UN report frames fossil fuel corporations' disinformation campaigns as violations of human rights and explicitly supports legal and financial accountability mechanisms, including litigation, divestment, and regulatory reform.
3. “Exxon Knew” Investigative Project – InsideClimate News (2015 onward)
URL: https://insideclimatenews.org/content/Exxon-The-Road-Not-Taken/
Why it’s useful: This Pulitzer-finalist series exposed how ExxonMobil internally acknowledged climate science as early as the 1970s while publicly funding disinformation campaigns. It has served as a basis for many current lawsuits, including those by U.S. states and cities.
4. The Climate Accountability Institute (CAI) – Annual Reports and Research on Carbon Majors
Why it’s useful: CAI quantifies emissions by major fossil fuel producers (“carbon majors”) and provides expert analysis on liability. Their work supports climate litigation by establishing causal links between specific companies’ emissions and global climate impacts.
5. Sabin Center for Climate Change Law at Columbia Law School – “Climate Change Litigation Databases”
Why it’s useful: The Sabin Center maintains the most comprehensive global database of climate litigation cases. Their resources document trends, legal arguments, and outcomes in cases where fossil fuel companies are being sued for their role in climate change and misinformation.
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