{"id":776406,"date":"2024-08-28T08:19:43","date_gmt":"2024-08-28T12:19:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/animalrightswatch.us\/?p=776406"},"modified":"2024-08-28T09:35:36","modified_gmt":"2024-08-28T13:35:36","slug":"the-untouchables-climate-change-litigation-turns-toward-animal-agriculture","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/animalrightswatch.us\/?p=776406","title":{"rendered":"COW IN THE COURT-ROOM: Climate change litigation turns toward animal agriculture"},"content":{"rendered":"\t
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The animal agriculture sector plays a prominent role in climate change. It is a leading source of potent climate pollutants, including methane and nitrous oxide. Because it has largely enjoyed exemptions from climate change regulations, it has become the primary motivator of advocates \u2019turn to the courts'. At COP28, the conference\u2019s final agreement only mentioned agriculture in the context of adaptation, not mitigation. The Biden administration\u2019s 2021 methane emissions reduction plan did not seek to control animal agriculture emissions, instead focusing on incentive-based and voluntary approaches. Nor did EPA address animal agriculture when it strengthened oil and gas methane emissions regulations in late 2023.<\/p>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t<\/blockquote>\n\n

DAINA BREY:<\/strong> Even as the geographical and doctrinal diversity of climate change litigation increases, climate lawsuits\u2014whether they seek to hold private actors directly accountable or challenge government policies\u2014continue to focus primarily on fossil fuels. This makes sense given that major oil and gas companies (sometimes called the \u201cCarbon Majors\u201d) are leading contributors to the climate crisis. But other industrial sectors also generate significant greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. The animal agriculture sector plays a prominent role, estimated to produce between 11 and 20 percent of all global GHG emissions, about one-third of the world\u2019s emissions of the climate super-pollutant methane, and more than half of global nitrous oxide emissions.<\/em><\/p>\n

Though animal agriculture has long escaped most climate litigants\u2019 notice, activists and lawyers in jurisdictions around the world are increasingly attentive to its responsibility for climate change. Our research discussing what we refer to as the \u201cMethane Majors,\u201d published in the Columbia Journal of Environmental Law, demonstrates this growing trend. As we argue, however, the full range of potential climate-related challenges to animal agriculture firms and their backers remains underexplored, including in U.S. courts…<\/em><\/p>\n

Inadequate regulation is often seen as a primary motivator of climate advocates\u2019 broader \u201cturn to the courts.\u201d That logic appears to apply with particular force to animal agriculture, which has largely enjoyed exemptions from climate change regulation, including in the United States and the European Union. This is despite the fact that animal agriculture is a leading source of potent climate pollutants, including methane and nitrous oxide, which the IPCC and others have long said must be rapidly cut in order to achieve the goals of the Paris Agreement.<\/em><\/p>\n

At COP28, where most state parties signed a nonbinding sustainable agriculture pledge, the conference\u2019s final agreement only mentioned agriculture in the context of adaptation, not mitigation. In the United States, even though the industry is responsible for approximately 36% of anthropogenic methane emissions, animal agriculture\u2019s GHG emissions (methane and otherwise) likewise remain largely unregulated. Despite environmental advocates\u2019 calls for more meaningful regulations, the Biden administration\u2019s 2021 methane emissions reduction plan did not seek to control animal agriculture emissions, instead focusing on incentive-based and voluntary approaches. Nor did EPA address animal agriculture when it strengthened oil and gas methane emissions regulations in late 2023. In the United States and other jurisdictions with such regulatory shortfalls, allegations related to animal agriculture thus feature in a variety of complaints against inadequate policy responses to climate change. Plaintiffs have characterized governments\u2019 relative inaction on animal agriculture emissions as in violation of those governments\u2019 constitutional, statutory, or international legal obligations…<\/em><\/p>\n

Though climate change regulations typically do not reach the animal agriculture industry, litigants have seized upon existing, generally applicable statutory frameworks to challenge alleged climate-related harms and misconduct by animal agriculture defendants. At least two important categories of such cases are worth noting: (1) supply-chain due diligence and (2) consumer protection… Early developments in climate change and animal agriculture litigation and nonjudicial advocacy are promising. Many of these efforts have unfolded in non-U.S. jurisdictions but are adaptable to the U.S. legal context. Moreover, a growing body of U.S. cases is challenging animal agriculture\u2019s climate impacts in lawsuits directed at government policies and decisions, sometimes successfully. For climate advocates, U.S. litigation may be especially appealing because of the failure of U.S. regulators to address the animal agriculture industry\u2019s emissions and because of the scale of the industry: the United States exports a surplus of meat and dairy in addition to having exceptionally high domestic per capita consumption. <\/em>SOURCE…<\/em><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

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