At the Smith School Sustainable Leadership Programme, Oxford
What Climate Litigation can learn from the US Tobacco Master Settlement Agreement
Widely seen as a possible model for pending and future climate litigation, the 1998 United States Tobacco Master Settlement Agreement (MSA) involving $246 billion in payments from the major US tobacco companies to the 50 states over 25 years to compensate for tobacco-related costs to state public medical insurance, is the largest financial reckoning ever of an industry to the public. However, many of the provisions which have allowed the industry to continue to operate, regain public legitimacy through proffering ‘cleaner’ products, and expand overseas can be seen interpreted as failures which a fossil fuel MSA should avoid. This presentation compares the parallel histories of these industries and examines both how a fossil fuel MSA might improve potential provisions for more beneficial societal outcomes, as well as key material differences between the industries and the scope (national versus global), which may affect the fossil fuel reckoning process.
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