This violation is carried out by licensing the activity of extracting fossil fuels without taking into account its effects on the climate.
Judge Kathy Seeley’s decision is the first of its kind in the United States, but it adds to other decisions that have occurred around the world that have defined the duty of governments to protect citizens from climate change.
The judge ruled that the rules the state uses to evaluate license applications from fossil fuel companies — which do not require them to assess the effects of greenhouse gas emissions — are unconstitutional.
Seely wrote in his ruling that “Montana’s emissions and climate change have proven to be a substantial factor in the climate impacts on, and harm to, the environment of Montana” on youth.
However, it is up to the state congress to determine how the rules in constitutionality are made. This means there is little chance of immediate change, given that fossil-fuel-friendly Republicans dominate the state legislature.
This is “a huge victory for Montana, youth, democracy, and our climate,” youth advocate Julia Olson said in a statement.
Olson is also the director of Our Children’s Trust, an Oregon-based environmental group that has filed similar complaints in every US state since 2011.
In his text, he added, “With wildfires raging across the West, fueled by fossil fuel pollution, today’s decision in Montana is a turning point in this generation’s efforts against the devastating effects of climate chaos.”
Emily Flower, a spokeswoman for Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen, called the ruling “absurd,” criticized the judge, and announced that the office would appeal.
Lawyers for the 16 plaintiffs, who range in age from 5 to 22, presented evidence during the two-week trial that rising carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions are causing warmer temperatures, droughts, fires, and less icy surfaces.
These changes harm people’s physical and mental health, especially young people, according to experts heard in court.
State representatives argued that even if Montana stopped producing carbon dioxide altogether, it would not have any impact on a global scale, because there are other states and countries emitting carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.
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