Climate suit seeking billions

NEW York City has sued five major oil companies, claiming they have contributed to global warming — on the same day officials announced they would sell billions in fossil fuel investments from the city’s pension funds.

Mayor Bill de Blasio said the city would be seeking bil- lions of dollars to recoup money spent for resiliency efforts related to climate change.

“We’re bringing the fight against climate change straight to the fossil fuel companies that knew about its effects and intentionally misled the public to protect their profits,” the Democratic mayor said.

“As climate change continues to worsen, it’s up to the fossil fuel companies, whose greed put us in this position, to shoulder the cost of making New York safer and more resilient.”

The city alleges the fossil fuel industry was aware for decades that burning fuel was impacting climate change.

The defendants in the city’s federal lawsuit are BP, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, Exxon Mobil and Royal Dutch Shell.

Curtis Smith, a Shell spokesman, said the company believed “climate change is a complex societal challenge that should be addressed through sound government policy and cultural change to drive low-carbon choices for businesses and consumers, not by the courts”.

BP declined to comment, and the other three companies did not immediately comment.

Other US cities San Francisco, Oakland, and Santa Cruz, California, have filed similar lawsuits against oil companies.

Mr De Blasio and comptroller Scott Stringer said they intend to divest the city’s five pension funds of roughly $5 billion in fossil fuel investments out of their total of $189 billion.