2023-08-14 22:58:39
Climate advocates can take heart. A US judge on Monday ruled in favor of young people who accused the state of Montana of violating their constitutional right to a “clean and healthy environment” by allowing the fossil fuel industry to prosper. A first in the United States.
The judge struck down a Montana law that prohibited the administration from considering the consequences of greenhouse gas emissions when awarding permits to fossil fuel companies, such as oil or coal . This is the first time that the American constitution has been invoked in court to attack local authorities on a climate issue.
A law deemed “unconstitutional” by the court
Particularity of the case, the sixteen plaintiffs are aged from 5 to 22 years. They argued that as young people, the consequences of fossil fuels and the climate crisis were particularly harmful to their future. What the court confirmed. “The plaintiffs have a fundamental constitutional right to a clean and healthy environment, which includes the climate,” the magistrate wrote in her decision. “By prohibiting analysis of greenhouse gas emissions and their impact on climate, as well as how additional greenhouse gas emissions will contribute to climate change or be consistent with Montana’s constitution” , the clause of this law “is unconstitutional”, she continued.
The trial was originally held in June in Helena, the capital of Montana. They relied on a section of the local constitution that states that “the state and everyone shall maintain and improve a clean and healthy environment in Montana for present and future generations.”
This decision could now set a precedent in many other cases. Other similar lawsuits have been filed across the United States, often to no avail. “Thank you to these brave young people who today won a huge victory against climate change,” commented on social networks the American senator and icon of the left Bernie Sanders.
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