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Chevron says it will not dispute climate science in U.S. lawsuit

Reuters  |  SAN FRANCISCO 

By Dan Levine

(Reuters) - A Chevron said in court on Wednesday that the company supports that humans are causing climate change, a response to a lawsuit that accuses five major of misleading the public for years about their role in global warming.

At a hearing in federal court, Chevron also said that the scientific consensus about did not fully form until the past decade.

The cities of and Oakland, sued , , ConocoPhillips , , and last year, seeking an abatement fund to help the cities address flooding they say is a result of climate change.

The companies argued in legal filings on Tuesday that the case should be dismissed, partly because has given regulatory agencies, not the courts, authority over the production and emission of fossil fuels.

The lawsuits, filed by politicians, are part of a larger campaign to address climate change in the courts. Worldwide, there are almost 900 lawsuits on climate change in 25 countries, a U.N. study said last year.

U.S. invited both sides to the hearing to describe their views on "the best science now available" on global warming and rising sea levels.

Since U.S. took office 14 months ago, domestic climate change policy has been turned on its head. Republican Trump has pushed to increase production of fossil fuels and said he was withdrawing the U.S. from the Paris Agreement to reduce emissions but has not disengaged from it completely.

In court on Wednesday, Boutrous said Chevron supports a 2013 report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which concluded it was "extremely likely" humans contribute to warming. However, Boutrous also said earlier IPCC reports were not as certain.

The asked Boutrous if the other four companies agreed with his presentation, and Boutrous said he was only speaking for Chevron.

No attorneys for the other four companies answered questions at the hearing, though all generally acknowledge the reality of climate change.

"I'm going to ask them at some point if they agree with everything you said," Alsup said.

All five companies argued in court papers on Tuesday that they should not be held liable for warming, which is caused by "billions" of parties and "complex environmental phenomena occurring worldwide over many decades."

(Reporting by Dan Levine; editing by Grant McCool)

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

First Published: Thu, March 22 2018. 01:20 IST
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