A historic court decision was handed down in the United States on Monday August 14. In Montana, a judge ruled in favor of young people who accused state government agencies of violating the Constitution by supporting the fossil fuel industry. An important victory for the climate.
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With our correspondent in New York, Loubna Anaki
The unpublished decision takes up a hundred pages, but can be summed up in one sentence: “ Plaintiffs have a fundamental constitutional right to a clean and healthy environment. This is how Montana judge Kathy Seeley justifies her position.
The origin of this case, there are 16 complainants, aged 5 to 22 years. During the trial, they recounted how global warming has affected their lives, their mental and physical health: increasingly hot summers, recurring drought, less and less snow cover in winter… The fault, according to them , to a law in Montana which authorizes this State to allocate permits to fossil fuel exploitation projects without taking into account the impact on the climate.
This law is therefore now considered unconstitutional. An important victory, according to the prosecution, and hailed by environmental organizations, which hope that it will pave the way for other similar decisions in the country. But Montana, which is the fourth-largest coal producer in the United States, is run by Republicans. The Attorney General has already indicated that he intends to appeal.
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