Open season for climate lawsuits

A while ago, I wrote about the wave of climate litigation that is washing over Europe and the United States, with dozens of environmentalist organisations eager to get a piece of the oil industry’s profit pie in the form of compensation for climate change.

Suing big, rich companies is good business, I imagine, but that wave, apparently, was just the start. The litigious rash is spreading and it’s spreading fast, far, and wide. And it’s engulfing children.

Last week in Montana, a court heard a case brought against the state by a group of children. Dubbed Held v. State of Montana, the case features a group of 16 plaintiffs, ranging in age from 5 (five) to 22 (the only legal adult in the group, after whom the case was named).

That trial was the first of its kind and it could set a precedent that some would see as encouraging and others as potentially disastrous. I’m afraid I belong in the latter camp.

Media coverage of the lawsuit and the trial has been largely of enthusiastic nature, with NPR going full dramatic because of course it would. But it’s not the media coverage that should worry people. It’s the case itself.

Basically, the plaintiffs accuse the state of Montana of prioritising hydrocarbons over other energy sources and thus violating their constitutional right to “a clean and healthful environment”.

Well, I say “the plaintiffs” but it’s actually Our Children’s Trust that is doing the work. It’s an interesting organisation based in Oregon that says it is “the world’s only not-for-profit law firm representing young people and their legal right to a safe climate.”

Leaving aside the odd phrase “safe climate”, the NGO appears to have filed lawsuits across the United States targeting hydrocarbons and their place in state energy policies. And they’re aiming high. And also far and wide.