Young Climate Activists File Lawsuit Against Montana: The Fight for Climate Justice in Court

2023-06-13 10:38:14

The trial began three years following young climate activists filed a lawsuit once morest the US state of Montana. 22-year-old Rikki Held and her 15 colleagues want to take legal action to force those responsible in their home country to do something regarding climate change. Experts spoke of the first lawsuit among dozens of similar lawsuits over the past ten years in the United States, which has now resulted in a lawsuit.

The hearing began on Monday (local time) in a court in Helena, the capital of Montana. The trial is scheduled to last more than two weeks, during which the young activists will try to convince District Judge Kathy Seeley that the state of Montana’s commitment to fossil fuel extraction is endangering their health, their livelihoods and future generations.

The Montana State Attorney tried to downplay the importance of the lawsuit. Sparsely populated Montana produces a tiny proportion of emissions on a global scale, he argued.

Climate activist Held countered:

“You can’t just dismiss it and do nothing regarding it,” said Held.

Held’s family owns a ranch in southeastern Montana near some of the richest coal deposits on the planet. She said she decided to join the lawsuit once morest the state following witnessing wildfires darken skies over the ranch and drought hurt livestock.

The German Federation for the Environment and Nature Conservation has filed a lawsuit once morest the federal government. He accuses the traffic light coalition of having missed the legal climate targets.

24.01.2023 | 00:18 min

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Politicians in Montana are sticking by coal as an export commodity to markets at home and abroad – despite a largely unanimous consensus among researchers that fossil fuels are largely responsible for climate change.

On Monday, Held reported heat warnings on her cell phone that indicated temperatures of well over 40 degrees Celsius. And a fire that burned down power lines, leaving the ranch without power for a month. That’s why the family mightn’t pump water for the cattle.

“It’s stressful,” Held said tearfully when asked regarding her feelings regarding climate change. The changing conditions would have “impacts on my well-being, that of my family and that of my community”.

Held’s attorney, Roger Sullivan, said his young clients and their families were already suffering from health problems and economic losses as climate change dried up rivers and worsened wildfires.

Due to its unusually strict constitution, Montana is obliged to protect its residents from climate change. “The state has issued numerous large fossil fuel-related permits that are responsible for tremendous amounts of greenhouse gas emissions,” Sullivan said. Every ton of CO2 that is saved counts.

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