Judge rules in favor of young people in the US in climate case – 08/14/2023 – Environment

A Montana judge ruled on Monday that young people have a constitutional right to a healthy environment. The case is considered historic due to the conclusion that the state failed to consider climate change when evaluating new projects.

The lawsuit, filed by a group of young Montana residents aged between five and 22, is the first of its kind to be tried in the United States.

While the state has argued that Montana’s carbon emissions are minuscule compared to the rest of the world, the youths argued that the state must do more to consider how emissions are contributing to droughts, wildfires and other rising risks.

In her ruling, district court judge Kathy Seeley concluded that the state’s emissions “have proven to be a substantial factor” affecting the climate. Laws that limited regulators’ ability to consider climate effects were unconstitutional, she ruled.

“This is a huge victory for Montana, for youth, for democracy and for our climate,” said Julia Olson, executive director of the law firm Our Children’s Trust, which presented the case.

The trial, which took place in June, featured testimony from climate scientists who detailed how rising greenhouse gas emissions as a result of human activity were already causing damage to health and the environment, and how those effects were likely to accelerate, unless measures were taken.

Many of the young people who are part of the process testify about the effects they have seen — extreme weather events that threaten family livestock, warmed rivers and streams that harm fish, smoke from wildfires that worsens asthma, and abnormal events in nature that interfere with traditions. indigenous.

Montana has a long mining history dating back to its founding, and one of the targets of the lawsuit is a bill backed by Republican lawmakers that prohibits state regulators from considering the weather effects of new mining projects.

But the state also has deep environmental traditions. In 1972, with widespread popular support for greater protection of state lands, the state Constitution was amended to say that the state should “maintain and enhance a clean and healthy environment in Montana for present and future generations”.

Montana is one of the few US states to establish such clear environmental rights in its Constitution.

Environmental advocates hope that the favorable decision in Montana could put pressure not only on state leaders, but also on other courts where similar litigation is pending.

Our Children’s Trust won a preliminary victory in June when a judge ruled that a case against the federal government in the state of Oregon could go to trial.