A dozen years after its first youth climate lawsuit was filed, Our Children’s Trust won a landmark victory in Montana on August 14, representing 16 young Montanans, ages 5 to 22.
“Today’s ruling in Montana is a game-changer that marks a turning point in this generation’s efforts to save the planet from the devastating effects of human-caused climate chaos,” said Our Children’s Trust founder Julia Olson.
“I know that climate change is a global issue, but Montana has to take responsibility for our part in that,” said Rikki Held, the 22-year-old plaintiff for whom the lawsuit is named.
“Plaintiffs have proven that as children and youth, they are disproportionately harmed by fossil fuel pollution and climate impacts,” Judge Kathy Seeley wrote. “Children are uniquely vulnerable to the consequence of climate change, which harms their physical and psychological health and safety, interferes with family and cultural foundations and integrity, and causes economic deprivations.”
Seeley went on to rule that “Plaintiffs have a fundamental constitutional right to a clean and healthy environment, which includes climate as part of the environmental life-support system.” She struck down two specific laws that prohibit consideration of climate impacts and issued an injunction prohibiting the state “from acting in accordance with the statutes declared unconstitutional.”
While the state of Montana immediately vowed to appeal the ruling, the case it presented at trial was extremely weak, as it abandoned original plans to challenge the climate science. Nor did they seriously challenge the fact that Montana’s 1972 Constitution clearly does establish a right to a clean and healthy environment—a fact attested to at trial by the youngest attendee to that constitutional convention.