By Nate Raymond
(Reuters) -Hawaii on Thursday agreed to take action to decarbonize its transportation system by 2045, settling a lawsuit from 13 youth who claim the U.S. state is violating their rights under its Constitution with infrastructure that contributes to the greenhouse gas emissions and climate change.
Democratic Gov. Josh Green announced the “groundbreaking” settlement at a news conference attended by some of the activists and attorneys involved in the lawsuit, which they called the first-ever youth-led climate case seeking zero emissions in transportation.
They argued that the state had prioritized infrastructure projects such as the construction and expansion of highways that tie up fossil fuel use, instead of focusing on projects that reduce carbon emissions.
“We are addressing the impacts of climate change today, and needless to say, this is a priority because we now know climate change is here,” Green said. “It’s not something we think about in an abstract way in the future.”
The case went to trial on Monday. It would have been the second-ever lawsuit in the United States by young people who claim their futures and health have been jeopardized by climate change and that a state’s actions violate their rights.
As part of the settlement, Hawaii will develop a roadmap to achieve net-zero emissions from its land, sea and air transportation systems in the Inner Islands by 2045, the year the state was already aiming to become carbon neutral.
The agreement, which can be enforced in court, calls for the creation of a volunteer youth council to advise the state’s Department of Transportation, which has committed to reworking its planning to prioritize reducing greenhouse gases and to establish a new unit dedicated to decarbonising the economy.
The department also plans to spend at least $40 million by 2030 to expand the public electric vehicle charging network and accelerate improvements to the state’s pedestrian, bicycle and public transportation networks.
Leinā’ala Ley, an attorney for the youth activists at Earthjustice, said the “agreement gives Hawaii a boost in our race against climate disasters and provides a model of best practices that other jurisdictions can also implement.”
The case is one of several young environmental activists in the United States who are broadly accusing governments of worsening climate change through policies that encourage or allow the extraction and burning of fossil fuels.
The youth, also represented by the nonprofit law firm Our Children’s Trust, claim the policy violates their rights under the U.S. or state constitutions.
The cases have raised new legal claims and have been dismissed by several courts. But the young activists scored a major victory last year when the first such case went to trial in Montana.
In that case, a Montana judge concluded that the Republican-led state’s policy, which prohibits regulators from considering climate change impacts when approving fossil fuel projects, violates the rights of young people.
The lawsuit against Hawaii was filed in 2022, alleging that the Department of Transportation operated a transportation system that violated the state’s constitutional mandates and affected their right to a life-sustaining environment.
The plaintiffs, between the ages of 9 and 18 when the case was filed, argued that the state is violating a right to a clean and healthy environment guaranteed by Hawaii’s Constitution, as well as its constitutional duty to “protect the natural beauty of Hawaii and all preserve and protect natural resources’.
The state spent $3 million fighting the case and seeking dismissal, arguing that the zero emissions goal and other state laws passed by the state legislature to promote reduced carbon emissions were “aspirational” and could not provide the basis form the claim that the state violates the norms of young people. rights.
But Judge Jeffrey Crabtree in Honolulu rejected that argument in April 2023, saying the laws required timely planning and action to address climate change and that the state’s inaction had already harmed the plaintiffs.
“Transportation emissions are increasing and will increase at the rate we are going,” Crabtree said. “In other words, the alleged harms are not hypothetical or only in the future. They are current, ongoing and getting worse.”
