{"id":713,"date":"2026-06-29T20:10:42","date_gmt":"2026-06-29T20:10:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/smartmovinghome.com\/?p=713"},"modified":"2026-06-29T20:10:42","modified_gmt":"2026-06-29T20:10:42","slug":"trumps-regulatory-rollbacks-fueled-unprecedented-wave-of-climate-litigation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/smartmovinghome.com\/?p=713","title":{"rendered":"Trump\u2019s Regulatory Rollbacks Fueled \u201cUnprecedented\u201d Wave of Climate Litigation"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Truthout is a vital news source and a living history of political struggle. If you think our work is valuable, <\/span><\/i>support us with a donation<\/span><\/i> of any size.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

Read more Princeton Historian Deconstructs the \u201cStorybook\u201d Version of US History<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Sweeping revisions to U.S. climate policy in the first year of President Donald Trump\u2019s second term have spawned a wave of protective litigation, legal challenges aimed not at advancing new climate goals but at preventing the rollbacks of existing regulation and preserving hard-won legal gains.<\/p>\n

The challenges to the Trump administration\u2019s regulatory rollbacks, funding freezes and dismantling of existing climate rules made up 20 percent of climate cases filed in the U.S. in 2025, up from 13 percent during Trump\u2019s first term, according to a global analysis from the London School of Economics.<\/p>\n

Both the scale of federal regulatory rollback under Trump and the surge in protective climate litigation in response are \u201cwithout precedent,\u201d the authors of the analysis wrote.<\/p>\n

Although U.S. cases accounted for more than half of all climate litigation brought worldwide last year, battles over the dismantling of climate policy are also emerging in other countries, wrote Joana Setzer and Catherine Higham, the report\u2019s authors at the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment at the London School of Economics.<\/p>\n

Similar protective cases have emerged in Canada, where young Ontarians appealed a rollback of provincial climate legislation, and in Brazil, where a series of cases before the Federal Supreme Court are challenging state laws that would end financial incentives for companies that go above and beyond legally required environmental practices in the Amazon.<\/p>\n

The global surge in protective climate litigation is a defensive response by civil society organizations as more and more federal governments enact legislation, litigation and executive actions to counter climate gains, wrote Setzer and Higham. <\/p>\n

Nowhere is that federal pushback against climate progress more notable than in the United States.<\/p>\n

The repeal in February of the Environmental Protection Agency\u2019s endangerment finding, a 2009 determination that greenhouse gases are a pollutant, illustrates \u201chow the [U.S.] executive branch is deploying law offensively to foreclose climate action,\u201d Setzer and Higham wrote.<\/p>\n

The endangerment finding revocation threatened the foundation for greenhouse gas regulation in the U.S. and faced immediate legal challenges. <\/p>\n

Read more Trump Says US-Iran Talks Will Resume on Tuesday \u2014 Tehran Hasn\u2019t Confirmed<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cWe will see them in court,\u201d announced Marvin Brown, senior attorney at Earthjustice, on the day the EPA released its decision.<\/p>\n

Within days, the EPA and administrator Lee Zeldin were slapped with two lawsuits, one brought by a coalition of 17 health and environmental groups and one filed on behalf of 18 young people across the U.S.<\/p>\n

The Trump administration has also taken an aggressive approach to repealing statutory provisions, regulations and guidance on climate change at the state and local levels. It has challenged local building electrification laws, for example, suing Morris Township, New Jersey, over its ordinance banning natural gas, propane and fuel oil-powered energy and appliances in new apartment buildings, alleging it preempts federal law.<\/p>\n

And an executive order signed by Trump in April 2025 attempts to override states\u2019 \u201cburdensome and ideologically motivated \u2018climate change\u2019 or energy policies that threaten American energy dominance.\u201d<\/p>\n

In fact, around 12 percent of climate cases filed worldwide last year can be understood as anti-climate litigation, which seeks to delay or dismantle climate regulation, Setzer and Higham report. <\/p>\n

\u201cThis pattern is clearest and best documented in the U.S.,\u201d they write. \u201cUnder the current administration, the federal government has built on the record of the first Trump administration and become an ever-more active anticlimate litigant.\u201d<\/p>\n

But repeated failures to follow the steps established by the Administrative Procedure Act as the executive branch flexes its muscle have also created significant litigation exposure for the administration, the authors note. Environmental organizations, state attorneys general and municipalities have been quick to capitalize on those missteps and pursue protective litigation.<\/p>\n

The rise of lawsuits as a mechanism of resistance to regulatory rollbacks suggests that courts are taking on greater responsibility as referees of climate policy and progress.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs attempts to roll back climate protections grow, courts are being called on to play an ever-more important role,\u201d Laura Clarke, CEO of the environmental law nonprofit ClientEarth, said in response to the LSE report on Thursday. \u201cBut litigation should not be the primary mechanism for delivering climate progress.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read more New Poll Shows Majority of Americans Believe There Are Grounds to Impeach Trump<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The US saw the most lawsuits, but battles over the dismantling of climate policy are also emerging in other countries.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":712,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-713","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interesting"],"yoast_head":"\nTrump\u2019s Regulatory Rollbacks Fueled \u201cUnprecedented\u201d Wave of Climate Litigation - Smart Moving Home<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/smartmovinghome.com\/?p=713\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Trump\u2019s Regulatory Rollbacks Fueled \u201cUnprecedented\u201d Wave of Climate Litigation - Smart Moving Home\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The US saw the most lawsuits, but battles over the dismantling of climate policy are also emerging in other countries.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/smartmovinghome.com\/?p=713\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Smart Moving Home\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-06-29T20:10:42+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/smartmovinghome.com\\\/?p=713#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/smartmovinghome.com\\\/?p=713\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"admin\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/smartmovinghome.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/ec0d70042821fd684a174c8d0e8becfa\"},\"headline\":\"Trump\u2019s Regulatory Rollbacks Fueled \u201cUnprecedented\u201d Wave of Climate Litigation\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-06-29T20:10:42+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/smartmovinghome.com\\\/?p=713\"},\"wordCount\":756,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/smartmovinghome.com\\\/?p=713#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/smartmovinghome.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/06\\\/16991ae2a56d563ace307f1ec05caacb.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"Interesting\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/smartmovinghome.com\\\/?p=713#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/smartmovinghome.com\\\/?p=713\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/smartmovinghome.com\\\/?p=713\",\"name\":\"Trump\u2019s Regulatory Rollbacks Fueled \u201cUnprecedented\u201d Wave of Climate Litigation - Smart Moving Home\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/smartmovinghome.com\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/smartmovinghome.com\\\/?p=713#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/smartmovinghome.com\\\/?p=713#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/smartmovinghome.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/06\\\/16991ae2a56d563ace307f1ec05caacb.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-06-29T20:10:42+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/smartmovinghome.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/ec0d70042821fd684a174c8d0e8becfa\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/smartmovinghome.com\\\/?p=713#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/smartmovinghome.com\\\/?p=713\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/smartmovinghome.com\\\/?p=713#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/smartmovinghome.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/06\\\/16991ae2a56d563ace307f1ec05caacb.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/smartmovinghome.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/06\\\/16991ae2a56d563ace307f1ec05caacb.jpg\",\"width\":2560,\"height\":1707,\"caption\":\"WASHINGTON, DC - FEBRUARY 12: U.S. President Donald Trump arrives to an event to announce a rollback of the 2009 Endangerment Finding in the Roosevelt Room at the White House on February 12, 2026 in Washington, DC. 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