On Thursday, October 12th, the City of Victoria voted nearly unanimously to send a Climate Accountability Letter to some of the world’s largest fossil fuel companies, asking them to pay their share of the municipality's climate costs.
Recipients of the letter include 20 different companies, including industry giants such as Exxon, Chevron, and Shell.
Anjali Appadurai of West Coast Environmental Law says that fossil fuel pollution caused by the operations and products of these companies constitutes almost 30% of human-caused greenhouse gases in the global atmosphere today.
“This letter is a powerful legal and symbolic message to the fossil fuel industry. It sets the stage for other municipalities to take this type of action, to demand a fair share of the costs they are already incurring due to climate change,” said Appadurai.
Appadurai says that through the action, Victoria has sent a clear sign that they will not bear the cost of climate change alone while industry operates without paying “their fair share.”
Andrew Gage, a staff counsel member at West Coast Environmental Law said in a statement that it is time to start asking questions about who is responsible for climate costs.
“Community members, especially marginalized populations, are currently paying for the full costs of climate change planning and damages. This isn’t our responsibility to bear alone,” said Gage.
West Coast Environmental Law was one of more than 55 organizations across B.C. that wrote to local governments in January asking them to write climate accountability letters to the fossil fuel industry.
These organizations also asked B.C. municipalities to consider a lawsuit against fossil fuel companies for a portion of their climate costs, similar to those recently filed by several California municipalities, including San Francisco and Oakland.
