Climate Change

In Executive Orders 14,008 and 13,990, President Biden articulated a “whole-of-government” approach to tackling climate change. The Department of Justice has made addressing climate change an agency-wide priority, reflected in Objective 3.5 of its FY 2022-26 Strategic Plan. The Environment and Natural Resources Division undertakes vital work on the front lines of the climate crisis. 

The Division prioritizes actions to address greenhouse gas emissions and the impacts of climate change in its civil and criminal litigation. 

• We file enforcement actions to stop greenhouse emissions that violate the Nation’s pollution control laws. Many sources generate significant amounts of greenhouse gases contributing to climate change, including chemical plants, natural gas processing plants, users of refrigerants, oil and gas producers, refineries, and landfills.
• We are also committed to working with enforcement partners on key climate-change-related initiatives, such as the multi-agency enforcement and prosecution initiatives to prevent the illegal trade, production, use, and sale of climate-damaging hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) and to control the emission of methane, a potent greenhouse gas.

The Division works closely with client agencies to defend Administration programs and policies designed to alleviate the causes and consequences of climate change and to protect the country’s abundant natural resources from climate change.

This work includes litigating on behalf of Tribes to ensure safe, sustainable homelands through the protection of reserved water rights and treaty hunting, fishing, and gathering rights.

• We enforce laws that protect critical carbon “sinks” such as forests, soils, prairies, and wetlands.

• We defend agency regulations, resource management plans, and executive branch policy documents challenged in courts nationwide.