ABSTRACT
This chapter begins with an overview of the literature on green criminology and climate change. After defining the concept of climate crimes, the chapter develops a conceptual framework for understanding these types of crime by drawing on Robert Agnew’s (2011) notion of ‘blameworthy harms’. Next, this chapter identifies four different types of climate crimes: crimes of continuing extraction and emissions; crimes of denial; crimes of political omission; and crimes of unjust and militaristic adaptation. Finally, to demonstrate some of the theoretical and empirical questions of climate crimes, the chapter concludes with a case study of the ExxonMobil Corporation’s (‘ExxonMobil’) continuing extraction of fossil fuels and the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions it produces, particularly as it pertains to the process of hydraulic fracturing (or ‘fracking’).
