Montana’s top court on Wednesday held that the state’s constitution guaranteed a right to a stable climate system and invalidated a law barring regulators from considering the effects of greenhouse gas emissions when permitting new fossil fuel projects.
The Montana supreme court upheld a landmark trial court decision last August in favor of 16 young people who said their health and futures were being jeopardized by climate change, which the state aggravates through its permitting of energy projects.
The 6-1 decision, the first of its kind by a US state supreme court, came in the first lawsuit to go to trial nationwide by young environmental activists challenging state and federal policies they say are exacerbating climate change.
Nate Bellinger, a lawyer for the plaintiffs at the non-profit Our Children’s Trust, in a statement said the ruling “affirmed the constitutional rights of youth to a safe and livable climate, confirming that the future of our children cannot be sacrificed for fossil fuel interests”.
Chase Scheuer, a spokesperson for Republican Montana attorney general Austin Knudsen, called the ruling “disappointing, but not surprising”.
“The majority of the state supreme court justices yet again ruled in favor of their ideologically aligned allies and ignored the fact that Montana has no power to impact the climate,” Scheuer said.
In a case that made headlines across the US and internationally, the 16 plaintiffs, aged five to 22, had alleged the state government’s pro-fossil fuel policies contributed to climate change. In trial hearings in June last year, they testified that these policies therefore violated provisions in the state constitution that guarantee a “clean and healthful environment”, among other constitutional protections. The following month district court judge Kathy Seeley ruled in favor of the plaintiffs.
At the time, the plaintiffs’ lawyers described the first-of-its-kind ruling as a “gamechanger” and a “sweeping win”, which campaigners hope will give a boost to similar cases tackling the climate crisis.
Wednesday’s ruling rejected Republican-led Montana’s bid to overturn Seeley’s 2023 decision that said the young people had a right to a clean and healthful environment under a 1972 amendment to Montana’s constitution that required the state to protect and improve the environment.
“Montana’s right to a clean and healthful environment and environmental life support system includes a stable climate system,” chief justice Mike McGrath wrote for the majority.
Youth-led lawsuits nationally have taken aim at government policies at the state and federal levels that they say encourage or allow the extraction and burning of fossil fuels, and violate the rights of young people under US or state constitutions.
While some of those cases have faltered, the youth activists scored a major victory in June when the state of Hawaii agreed as part of a first-in-the-nation settlement to take action to decarbonize its transportation system by 2045.
Reuters contributed reporting
