AES Corporation v Steadfast Insurance Company
Insurers breathed a collective sigh in 2011 when the Supreme
Court of Virginia ruled that Steadfast Insurance Company
(Steadfast) had no liability under a commercial general liability
(CGL) policy to cover its insured, AES Corporation (AES) which was
defending a claim to do with its carbon emissions. The relief was
short lived. AES has now appealed the decision and the matter is
back before the courts.
By way of background, in February 2008 the Village of Kivalina,
a native community in Alaska, brought a claim against various oil
and energy companies, including AES, alleging that the companies
had rendered the village uninhabitable through the emission of
greenhouse gases. The Village's main argument was that these
emissions caused the Kivalina coastline to be exposed to storm
surges, resulting in erosion. Kivalina alleges that when AES
intentionally emitted millions of tons of carbon dioxide and other
greenhouse gases
