Wired.com is reporting that nations most effected by climate change are now thinking the unthinkable – starting legal action against those countries deemed to have caused the damaging pollution:
Industries are bracing for a tide of climate lawsuits. The major insurer Swiss Re has warned that “climate-change-related litigation could become a significant issue within the next couple of years.” Pawa compares this nascent field to the epic court battles over tobacco and asbestos. “It’s a process of learning by doing,” said Pawa. “Just by bringing these cases over and over again, the judiciary [and] the public get used to the idea of liability.” According to a forthcoming United Nations study, the world’s 3,000 biggest public companies could be on the hook for $2.2 trillion — more than 30 percent of their profits — if they were made to pay for the fallout of their carbon emissions.
Obviously this is still some way off, but maybe someday the polluters really might be forced to pay. At worst it perhaps provides additional motivation for countries to sign up to a more meaningful climate change treaty.