California sues oil giants over climate risks deception

NEW YORK

The U.S. state of California has sued five of the world's largest oil companies, alleging the firms caused billions of dollars in damages and misled the public by minimizing the risks from fossil fuels, The New York Times reported.

It follows numerous other cases brought by U.S. cities, counties and states against fossil fuel interests over the impact of climate change as well as alleged disinformation campaigns spanning decades.

The civil case was filed in superior court in San Francisco against Exxon Mobil, Shell, BP, ConocoPhillips and Chevron, which is headquartered in California.

The American Petroleum Institute, an industry group, is also a defendant in the case, The New York Times said.

The companies and their allies "intentionally downplayed the risks posed by fossil fuels to the public, even though they understood that their products were likely to lead to significant global warming," dating back to the 1950s, the suit alleged, according to the newspaper.

The California case seeks the creation of an abatement fund to pay for future damages caused by climate disasters in the state, which is on the front lines of climate change-fueled wildfires, flooding and other extreme weather phenomena.

"Oil and gas company executives have known for decades that reliance on fossil fuels would cause these catastrophic results, but they suppressed that information from the public and policymakers by actively pushing out disinformation on the topic," the 135-page complaint reads, according to the Times.

"Their deception caused a delayed societal response to global warming. And their misconduct has resulted in tremendous costs to people, property, and natural resources, which continue to unfold each day."