Comment: Some cynics among us suspect that this indeed is a major factor in the climate-change-will-kill-us-all! brohouha --- make the use of fossil fuels legally actionable, so that entities claiming "injury" by climate can sue for the Big Bucks.  :-/

It's been tried before - one of the small Pacific island nations (Vanuatu, I think) filed some sort of suit in the 1990s regarding sea level rise.  But the plaintiffs forgot (or didn't know) that the Pacific Ocean in effect sloshes back and forth in time with the ENSO to the tune of several centimeters relative sea level change per cycle.  They filed suit at a time when the relative sea level had in fact been *dropping* around their islands for several years - kind of shot themselves in the foot.  (Didn't win the case either, as I recall.)  ;-)

It will be interesting to see how the CA suits turn out.  A win would certainly help them fill the huge hole in the public pension liabilities that they face.  (The real reason for filing?)