Youth-Led Climate Litigation
Worldwide, litigants are turning to the courts as a forum for fighting climate change, filing lawsuits against governments in an attempt to force climate action. Plaintiffs in these lawsuits are often children and young adults, who represent those most affected by government climate inaction. A notable early example of youth-led litigation related to climate change was in the Philippines in the 1990s, where forty-three students sued the Philippine government to protect their village’s forest. Though the case was initially dismissed in lower courts on the ground that the students were children and did not have legal standing to sue, the students ultimately won their case and deforestation was halted.
In the United States in 2015, twenty-one young people, the organization Earth Guardians, and climate scientist James Hansen (collectively, “plaintiffs”), represented by lawyers from the organization Our Children’s Trust, sued the U.S. government in a case called Juliana v. United States of America. The plaintiffs alleged that the U.S. government, in not taking sufficient action to fight climate change, knowingly violated their Fifth Amendment due process rights to life, liberty and property, and knowingly violated its commitment to protect public lands. In 2020, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals dismissed the case on the ground that the legislative and executive branches have the power to address climate change, not the judicial system. Still, despite the ruling, Juliana v. United States catalyzed a climate litigation movement across the country and world, and a documentary film about the case increased its impact. The Ninth Circuit’s ruling did not end the case, which was sent back to the district court for further proceedings. In June 2023, the district court granted the plaintiffs’ motion for leave to amend their complaint. Plaintiffs are hoping to survive additional motions to dismiss so that the case can proceed to trial.
Our Children’s Trust has sued state governments on behalf of young people in all fifty states. Although most of those cases have been dismissed, the first of these cases to go to trial was Held v. Montana in June 2023. Additionally, in September 2023, Navahine F. v. Hawaii Department of Transportation is set to go to trial. These trials are the first in the United States involving youth-led constitutional climate cases, with the plaintiffs both using language from Montana’s and Hawaii’s constitutions to make their case.
Is Climate Change a Question for the Courts?
This is an ongoing debate. The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals rejected the Juliana v. United States case in 2020, with the majority opinion concluding that climate change is an issue for Congress and the Executive Branch to handle, rather than the judicial system. But Hawaii’s First Circuit Judge Jeffrey Crabtree argued, in response to lawyers for the Hawaii Department of Transportation who made a similar argument, that Navahine F. v. Hawaii Department of Transportation should be allowed to go to trial. Judge Crabtree wrote that “the courts unequivocally have an important and long-recognized role in interpreting and defending constitutional guarantees.” A separate and difficult legal question concerns the nature and extent of the public trust doctrine and what duty might apply to the government. The courts will need to wrestle with that set of issues if the cases reach the trial stage.
Who is Julia Olson?
Julia Olson is Executive Director and Chief Legal Counsel of Our Children’s Trust, the organization representing the youth plaintiffs in the climate change litigation discussed in this article. She earned her law degree (JD) from the University of California College of Law, San Francisco (then known as UC Hastings) in 1997 and began her legal career representing grassroots conservation groups working to protect the environment, organic agriculture, and human health. Since becoming a mother, Julia has focused her advocacy on youth climate action and founded Our Children’s Trust to further this mission.
Further Reading
Watch Youth v Gov | Netflix
Meet the Youth Plaintiffs, Our Children's Trust
Juliana v. United States, Harvard Law Review (2021)
It's Kids vs. the World in a Landmark Climate Complaint, Gizmodo (2019)
Trump admin again asks Supreme Court to stop youth climate lawsuit, The Hill (2018)
For a transcript, please visit https://climatebreak.org/climate-change-litigation-on-behalf-of-young-people-with-julia-olson/
