Kids’ climate change case thrown out United States

A US federal appeals court has dismissed a lawsuit by 21 young people who say the US Government’s climate policies and reliance on fossil fuels harms them, jeopardises their future and violates their constitutional rights, potentially dealing a fatal blow to a long-running case that activists saw as an important front in the war against environmental degradation.

Oregon-based youth advocacy group Our Children’s Trust filed the lawsuit in 2015 on behalf of the youngsters. It sought an injunction ordering the government to implement a plan to phase out fossil fuel emissions and draw down atmospheric carbon dioxide emissions. The case had bounced around the federal courts for five years.

The 2-1 vote for dismissal by the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals yesterday was a serious setback for the climate activists, who vowed to ask the full 9th Circuit panel to review the ruling.

The trust has filed numerous similar cases in state and federal courts, and has nine cases pending in state courts from Alaska to New Mexico.

‘‘This is a very serious blow to the case, perhaps a fatal blow,’’ said Jennifer Rushlow, an associate dean for environmental programmes at Vermont Law School, who has been watching the case closely.

The trust said that although the justices ruled for dismissal, they also said in their opinion that the evidence showed climate change was real and caused by fossil fuels, and that the young plaintiffs had suffered legitimate consequences from climate change.

The case was ‘‘far from over’’, said Julia Olson, lead attorney for Our Children’s Trust.

The court wrote that the youngsters made a compelling case that action was needed, and agreed that climate change was undeniable, but said the proper venue for addressing the nation’s emissions policies and fossil fuel use was the US Congress or the executive branch.

The justices also wrote that ending the use of fossil fuels in the US alone would not be enough to slow or stop climate change.

The youths, who were aged 8 to 18 when the lawsuit was filed, come from all over the US, from Oregon to New York. They tied specific incidents that had affected their lives to climate change and US government policies.

In one instance, a young woman said she was forced to leave her home on a Navajo reservation because of water scarcity. Another – the youngest plaintiff – said storms driven by climate change had affected his home, a barrier island off the Florida coast. Others cited health impacts, such as worsening asthma attacks from air pollution.