Vancouver city council passes motion to back climate lawsuit against big oil companies

Vancouver city council passed a motionWednesday to allocate funds towarda potential climate lawsuit against major oil companies in Canada.

The motionbrought forward by Coun. Adriane Carr was passed in a 6-5 vote and will set aside up to$1 per Vancouver resident or up to approximately $700,000to support a class action lawsuit against fossil fuel companies.

"I think it's time to make sure all the burden of climate change doesn't land on local taxpayers and big oil pays their fair share," Vancouver Mayor Stewart Kennedy told CBC.

The campaign, launched in Juneby environmental groups West Coast EnvironmentalLaw and GeorgiaStrait Alliance, is called 'Sue Big Oil,' and its aim is to take big oil companies like Shell and Chevron to court for their role in climate change.

The groups are calling on B.C.'s local governments to help fundtheirclass action lawsuit against global fossil fuel companies.

Andrew Gage, an environmental lawyer with West Coast Environmental Law, says theydo not have a timeline for filing the lawsuit, and that pursuing it will depend on the kind of reception they receivefrom othermunicipalities.

If they pursue the lawsuit and win, the citywould recover a share of the money, which will go towardefforts to mitigate the impacts of climate change, like implementingsea-wall repairs orbuilding infrastructure toprotect peoplefrom extreme heat.

According to statistics fromEnvironment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC), the oil and gas, and transportation sectors continue to be Canada's largestsources of carbon emissions. In 2019, the oil and gas sector produced 26 per centof national emissions.

Gage says his firm is thrilled with the decision. He hopes it will encourage other municipalities to pursue similar lawsuits.

"I think we're going to see it more and more because communities, local governments are experiencing massive climate costs," he said.

"Andif taxpayers have to pay all of those costs ...That's going to be a real problem."

Not everyone is on board

Coun. Lisa Dominato was one of fivewho voted against the motion.

She says that while climate change is an important issue the city should continue to act on, allocatingresources toa lawsuitmight be the "wrong tool in the toolbox."

"We have many, many pressing priorities locally I would have preferred to have seen that $700,000 invested in things like EV infrastructure or the electric vehicle fleet for the city, retrofits of our own buildings," she told CBC.

"But instead that money is basically going to be held in trust and for an unknown date for an unknown class action lawsuit."

Coun. Rebecca Bligh agrees that there are more tangible ways to spend moneywhen it comes to climate change.

"We are suing big oil but then lining up at the gas station to fill up our city vehicles. It doesn't make sense," Bligh said.

Similar lawsuits have been successful

Gage says while this is the first time a city in Canada has committedto support a lawsuit like this, it's not the first of its kind worldwide.

An environmental advocacy group in the Netherlands filed a lawsuit against oil giant Shell for its role in the climate crisis in 2020 and won.

The famouslitigation that exposed tobacco companies for lying about their products being harmful was also successful.

The tobacco industry example was presentedin the motion to Vancouver city council, pointing to howit helped mitigate the root problem, similarly to what could be done withfossil fuel companies in regards to climate change.

"As we've seen with cases with Big Pharma and the cigarette companies ... these are worth getting into and often it's up to cities to lead the way," said Kennedy.