Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/06pdf/05-1120.pdf
Page Number: 49

Cite as:  549 U. S. ____ (2007) 

11 

ROBERTS, C. J., dissenting 

radiative  properties  of  the  atmosphere;  changes  in 
critically important climate feedbacks (e.g., changes in
cloud  cover  and  ocean  circulation);  changes  in  tem-
perature  characteristics  (e.g.,  average  temperatures, 
shifts in daytime and evening temperatures); changes
in  other  climatic  parameters  (e.g.,  shifts  in  precipita-
tion,  storms);  and  ultimately  the  impact  of  such 
changes on human health and welfare (e.g., increases 
or  decreases  in  agricultural  productivity,  human 
health impacts).”  App. to Pet. for Cert. A–83 through 
A–84. 

Petitioners are never able to trace their alleged injuries 
back through this complex web to the fractional amount of 
global  emissions  that  might  have  been  limited  with  EPA 
standards.    In  light  of  the  bit-part  domestic  new  motor 
vehicle  greenhouse  gas  emissions  have  played  in  what
petitioners describe as a 150-year global phenomenon, and 
the  myriad  additional  factors  bearing  on  petitioners’  al-
leged  injury—the  loss of  Massachusetts  coastal  land—the
connection is far too speculative to establish causation. 

IV 
Redressability  is  even  more  problematic.  To  the  tenu-
ous  link  between  petitioners’  alleged  injury  and  the  inde-
terminate fractional domestic emissions at issue here, add 
the fact that petitioners cannot meaningfully predict what
will come of the 80 percent of global greenhouse gas emis-
sions  that  originate  outside  the  United  States.    As  the 
Court  acknowledges,  “developing  countries  such  as  China 
and India are poised to increase greenhouse gas emissions 
substantially  over  the  next  century,”  ante,  at  23,  so  the 
domestic  emissions  at  issue  here  may  become  an  increas-
ingly  marginal  portion  of  global  emissions,  and  any  de-
creases  produced  by  petitioners’  desired  standards  are 
likely  to  be  overwhelmed  many  times  over  by  emissions
increases elsewhere in the world.