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Our Children’s Trust represents children in court to address their need for a safe climate. Courts have the power to hold governments accountable to their young citizens, where every child is protected and can thrive.
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A Montana judge ruled in favor of a group of young people who claimed the state of violating their right to a “clean and healthful environment.”
In a case that made headlines around the US and internationally, 16 plaintiffs, aged five to 22, alleged the Montana state government’s pro-fossil fuel policies contributed to climate change.
The landmark climate case, Held v Montana, was brought in 2020, with the 16 plaintiffs alleging state officials violated their constitutional right to a healthy environment by enacting pro-fossil fuel policies.
The trial began on June 12, 2023, in Helena, Montana. Specifically, the plaintiffs challenged a provision in the Montana Environmental Policy Act that prohibited the state from considering greenhouse gas emissions as a factor when deciding whether to issue permits for energy-related projects.
In opening statements, Roger Sullivan, a lawyer for the plaintiffs, explained that climate change is fueling drought, wildfires, extreme heat, and other environmental disasters throughout Montana, taking a major toll on the young plaintiffs’ health and wellbeing. There is a “scientific consensus”, he noted, that these changes can be traced back to the burning of fossil fuels.
During their five-day presentation of their case, almost all of the plaintiffs themselves testified, as did eight plaintiffs’ expert witnesses on topics including climate change, renewable energy, energy policy in Montana, and children’s physical and mental health.[
In the defense’s case, Montana Assistant Attorney General Michael Russell asserted that the court “will hear lots of emotion, lots of assumptions, accusations”, but that climate change “is a global issue that effectively relegates Montana’s role to that of a spectator, with Montana’s emissions (being) simply too minuscule to make any difference.”
Coal is critical to the state’s economy, and Montana is home to the largest recoverable coal reserves in the country. The plaintiff’s attorneys say the state has never denied a permit for a fossil fuel project.
Interestingly, the case before Judge Kathy Seeley was originally slated to last for two weeks. However, after the plaintiffs took six days to present their case, the state’s attorneys called only three witnesses in its single-day case, closing their case at the end of the sixth day of trial.
Additionally, instead of disputing the climate science behind the plaintiffs’ case, the state focused instead on arguing that the legislature should weigh in on the contested law, not the judiciary.
Russell derided the case in his closing statement as a “week-long airing of political grievances that properly belong in the Legislature, not a court of law.”
Over the last five years, youth-led lawsuits in the United States have faced an uphill battle. Already, at least 14 of these cases have been dismissed, according to a July report from the United Nations Environment Program and the Sabin Center.
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