However the U.S. Supreme Court rules, the work of holding oil companies accountable for climate change has a bright future.

The US Supreme Court heard arguments from oil companies on Monday that could help decide the fate of more than two dozen lawsuits accusing the industry of deceiving the public about climate change. The claims seek potentially billions of dollars in damages to help pay the costs imposed by climate-related extreme weather.

Yet the questions before the court did not focus on the merits of these claims but instead on technical legal matters over whether they should proceed at all.

The case being argued was brought in 2018 by the city and county of Boulder against ExxonMobil and Suncor Energy in Colorado state court. While the case and dozens like it have survived multiple appeals in state and federal courts, the oil companies are asking the Supreme Court to declare that federal law preempts state and local governments from bringing such claims.

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Manufacturers say they are close to perfecting a new, more efficient solar panel that could help the United States reclaim ground it lost.

Faced with a president who has called global warming a hoax, officials have filed dozens of suits against oil companies to try to cover the costs of extreme weather.

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Manufacturers say they are close to perfecting a new, more efficient solar panel that could help the United States reclaim ground it lost.

Manufacturers say they are close to perfecting a new, more efficient solar panel that could help the United States reclaim ground it lost.

The justices are about to hear a lawsuit that could determine whether the oil industry faces billions of dollars in liability for damages caused by global warming.

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One argument that often comes up about climate change is that fossil fuels are good because they powered economic growth that has left most people better off overall. And, to an extent, that has been true, but it's also an extremely limited perspective.

It's pretty obvious now that the growth they powered has come with very high costs that we've only recently started to pay, in the form of damages and disruptions from extreme weather events. With things like sea level rise expected to continue for centuries even if we hit net zero, it's difficult to estimate how expensive that growth will eventually be.

But that perspective is also limited: We now have better ways to power our growth—ways that are less environmentally damaging now and won't leave our descendants with a carbon debt that will be difficult to manage.

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The lawsuit is the 97th the state has filed against the Trump administration over the past year and a half.

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At the Climate Forward live event, policymakers, executives and activists debated the boom in data centers, the growing backlash and its environmental effects.

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Both are human-caused, both are frightening, and one of them has raced to the forefront of the global conversation.

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