Timely lawsuit

MAYOR Bill de Blasio’s recent declaration of war on Big Oil for its contribution to climate change inspired, as is often the case with this mayor, some scepticism that he was once again seizing a big issue to propel himself into the national spotlight.

But Mr De Blasio’s decision to confront some of the world’s biggest polluters is possibly transformative and certainly timely. The mayor’s attack is two-pronged.

First, he intends to divest the city’s $189 billion pension fund of about $5 billion invested in fossil fuel companies. This puts the city on the same page as a number of other cities where the divestment movement first took root.

Second, of potentially more consequence, he announced the city was suing five big oil companies to hold them accountable for emissions that have helped drive up global temperatures and to force the companies to fork over billions of dollars in damages to help cope with the effects of climate change.

The suit is hardly a slam dunk: Among the obstacles will be establishing relationships between emissions and weather events, and surmounting the industry’s claim that the consumers of fossil fuels are no less culpable.

The suit and the discovery process will be useful for many reasons, not least in spotlighting evidence that companies like Exxon had long known from their own scientists about the damage their products would cause the environment.