How the World’s Most Powerful Corporations Have Fought Accountability for Climate Change

Bytseu – “A new report draws on decades of internal documents and court records to lay out how some of the world’s most powerful corporations misled the public about the dangers of climate change—and how their efforts to avoid responsibility for the harms caused by their products have evolved in recent years. The documents and records cited in the report, released Wednesday by the watchdog group Union of Concerned Scientists, have been reported on previously. But the report’s authors say they are the first to aggregate and analyze those documents in a comprehensive way. “This report puts together, in one place, a powerful body of evidence about what the fossil fuel corporations knew—and when—about the climate impacts of their products, and what they did in spite of what they knew,” said Kathy Mulvey, a report author and accountability campaign director for the Climate and Energy Program at UCS. Mulvey said the report should add heft to dozens of lawsuits pending worldwide against fossil fuel companies over their contribution to climate change. The report comes as the Trump administration and the U.S. Department of Justice are acting to shield those companies from legal accountability efforts within the United States. In late April, President Donald Trump signed an executive order announcing his intent to protect “American Energy From State Overreach.” The order directs the Justice Department to review, identify and thwart state and local efforts to address climate change. In recent weeks, the agency filed lawsuits against Hawaii, Michigan, New York and Vermont, alleging those states’ lawsuits or legislation seeking to hold fossil fuel companies accountable for climate-related harms infringes on federal power. Historically, conservatives championed states’ rights. But in recent years, the Republican Party has repeatedly sought to invoke a legal mechanism known as preemption to extinguish local communities’ and states’ rights to make decisions about environmental and health protections. The report notes that the oil and gas industry was a “heavy donor” to Trump’s 2024 campaign. Publicly available documents indicate industry groups gave an estimated $96 million to the Trump campaign. That amount doesn’t include so-called “dark money” donations that are not publicly disclosed or contributions to the president’s meme coin, which Trump has personally profited from. The White House did not respond to a request for comment. The Trump administration has previously said it is “committed to unleashing American energy,” though the White House has also moved to block low-carbon energy projects like wind farms. According to the Union of Concerned Scientists’ report, titled “Decades of Deceit,” one quarter of people in the United States live in a state, territory or municipality that has sued a fossil fuel corporation for their role in contributing to climate change…”

Decades of Deceit. The Case Against Major Fossil Fuel Companies for Climate Fraud and Damages. Delta Merner, Kathy Mulvey, Laura Peterson, Seth Shulman  – Published May 14, 2025.