New York’s fight against the oil giants is political posturing at its worst

Was there ever a more pathetic piece of political posturing than the attempt by New York mayor Bill de Blasio to sue five oil companies, including BP and Shell, for the cost of building £14.8bn ($20bn) worth of sea defences to protect vulnerable parts of the city? To add to his virtue-signalling, de Blasio has also announced that the city’s pension funds will seek to divest from the shares of oil companies.

One should never under-estimate the ability of the courts, whether in the US or elsewhere, to come up with perverse judgements but it ought to be pretty improbable that New York could win the case. While there is scientific evidence to link an element of sea level rise to higher global temperatures and in turn to carbon emissions, New York needs better sea defences global warming or not. It is built in a very vulnerable, low-lying location in a channel where southerly winds tend to be funnelled. New York City’s own report