City leaders are taking the battle for climate change into their own hands because the federal government is failing to hold the fossil fuel industry accountable for the cost of climate change. In January, New York City announced a lawsuit against five major oil companies, including BP, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, ExxonMobil and Royal Dutch Shell, with the hopes of getting them to pay up for the billions of dollars that preparing for rising sea levels and infrastructure planning will cost.

Michael Burger, who leads a team of climate law attorneys at Columbia University, spoke to Salon's Alyona Minkovski on "Salon Now" about how the lawsuit will move through the courts. "The possibility that these lawsuits have in addressing real change comes not from any individual decision, but from the possibility that taken together, they can force or incentivize industry to get on board with a more radical plan," Burger said.