Why 16 young Montanans are suing the state over climate change.And what could happen in case of victory

The weekly round-up on the climate crisis and data on carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere.

Do citizens have the right to a healthy environment?In Montana yes, by Constitution.THE'article II of the State Constitution in fact it reads:“The State and every person must maintain and enhance a clean and healthy environment in Montana for present and future generations.” Sixteen young people, aged 5 to 23, supported Our Children's Trust, a nonprofit advocacy organization based in Eugene, Oregon, relied on this article to sue the state for putting the interests of the fossil fuel industry before it and violating constitutional law to a “clean and healthy environment”.If they win, the case could become a precedent in other states where similar lawsuits have been filed.

The case “Held vs.Montana” is named after Rikki Held, the daughter of a farmer who saw her family's livestock killed due to drought and floods.Rikki was the only adult when the lawsuit was filed in March 2020.Beside her are two brothers who love to hunt and fish and talk about how the forest they rely on for food is deteriorating around them.There is a 5-year-old boy who struggles to breathe because the smoke from the fires has aggravated his asthma.Or a young indigenous woman who fears that the effects of climate change will cause her tribe to lose the ancient cultural traditions that have allowed it to overcome wars and genocide.Each of them, writes Grist, is tired of the inaction of politicians who are not only unable to mitigate the problem, but actively make it worse.The 16 accuse the governor and other officials of neglecting their constitutional duty to preserve and protect the environment for future generations.“Although Defendants knew that Plaintiff Youth lives in dangerous climate conditions that create an unreasonable risk of harm, they continue to actively act to exacerbate the climate crisis,” the lawsuit reads.

Montana it is home to legendary locations, such as Yellowstone National Park, visited by campers, hikers, tourists, but also the largest coal reserves in the USA, the Bakken Formation and its billions of untapped barrels of oil, the Big Sky State, the fifth largest coal producer and the twelfth largest oil producer in the country.The coal industry has also been a boon to the local economy:Jobs in the coal industry they are paid about 30% more compared to the state's median incomes.

Although Montana is among the states most exposed to climate change, hit by wildfires that have burned evergreen forests and rendered large tracts of ranchland unusable, over the past 20 years, state lawmakers have taken measures to benefit the fossil fuel industry:only last May did Governor Greg Gianforte sign a new law that prevents regulators, such as the Montana Department of Environmental Quality, from examining the climate impact of new coal mine or power plant projects electrical systems which, instead, should be subjected to environmental review.According to the 16 young plaintiffs, Montana lawmakers knowingly prioritized fossil fuel development over the well-being of residents and the protection of public resources, including rivers, lakes and wildlife.

The trial will last two weeks.Defendants include Gov. Greg Gianforte, the Department of Natural Resources and Conservation and four other state agencies.“How is it that the Department of Natural Resources, which is charged with helping ensure that Montana's land and water resources provide benefits to present and future generations, has leased land for oil and gas drilling and allocates less of 1% of revenue to protect the state's forests from fires?” the plaintiffs ask in the lawsuit.

The state has tried several times to have the case dismissed.Lawmakers have even attempted to change environmental protection laws to eliminate the legal basis for the complaint.The attorney general asked the state Supreme Court to take the case out of the hands of Judge Kathy Seeley of Helena's First District Court and issue a stay that would halt everything just as expert witness testimony was due to begin.The Court rejected both requests.Seeley denied another motion to dismiss late last month, although he ruled that the law passed last May would not be considered at trial.

Judge Seeley will have to evaluate whether the plaintiffs' compensation claims are accurate;whether Montana's greenhouse gas emissions and climate change impacts can be measured incrementally;whether such impacts can be attributed to fossil fuel production;and whether a favorable ruling will help the plaintiffs and impact the state's conduct.

A spokesperson for Attorney General Austin Knudsen he defined the requests presented by the 16 young people "meritless and politically motivated claims" by an organization that seeks "to impose its authoritarian climate agenda on us".

The lawsuit is “critically important at a time when our state government is actively undermining the places that make Montana unique,” ​​said Melissa Hornbein, an attorney with the Western Environmental Law Center who is working on the case.“We have a government that seems very intent on destroying it.”

“It takes courage to stand up to your government and submit to hours and hours of testimony by the state, and have your past and your personal life and your private life excavated in a trial,” Hornbein added, referring to to the pressures that the 16 young people will face.

“I did everything I could do as a person.Now I believe the time has come for my government to act." he declared to Grist Claire Vlases, 20, a student at Claremont McKenna College in Southern California, joined the cause when she was 17, even before she could vote.“If Montana as a state was able to recognize that it promoted fossil fuels against its Constitution, it would be a huge motivating factor for young people across the state who are losing hope.”

A survey, he reports again Grist, found that 59% of respondents under the age of 25 see climate change as an ongoing concern, and 39% say this concern impacts their daily lives.Young activists have repeatedly implored world leaders to act, as emissions continue to rise and extraction continues to increase.

In addition to having strong symbolic value, a victory could provide a legal basis for more targeted legal attacks in the future, particularly in other states that have constitutional guarantees for a healthy environment or in the four states (Hawaii, Illinois, Massachusetts and Rhode Island) with fewer environmental protections enshrined in their Constitutions.Our Children's Trust has filed similar lawsuits in all 50 states, and the federal lawsuit Juliana vs.United States.

Bonn climate talks on the verge of failure

Close to the end of the United Nations climate talks in Bonn, Germany, the governments they haven't succeeded yet to reach an agreement on the agenda.“The possibility that the two weeks of talks will end in stalemate as the climate crisis worsens becomes increasingly concrete,” he writes Climate Home News. 

Negotiations on emissions reductions and adaptation measures continue, but the co-chair of the talks, Pakistan's Nabeel Munir, warned that "all the work done could go to waste if the agenda is not officially adopted".Munir defined the meetings in Bonn in recent days as "an elementary school class" and urged the negotiators to "get a move on, what is happening around you is incredible".

Urging a deal, Zambia's chief negotiator, Ephraim Mwepya Shitima, warned it ran the "risk of undermining the credibility of the process" and "disrupting even some of the critical functions of the UN climate change agency."

Among the reasons for disagreement between the most advanced economies and some developing countries are the inclusion of climate finance on the agenda and the question of including the reduction or phasing out of fossil fuels on the summit agenda on climate COP28 in Dubai.Many countries would like to see it at the COP in Dubai if it arrived to a formal resolution that specifically talked about phasing out fossil fuels, or at least that such phasing out was discussed as an official agenda item for the summit.But this hypothesis is especially opposed by fossil fuel-producing states, including Saudi Arabia.The COP28 presidency was also cautious, saying there is no agreement yet on the agenda.

Many in the fossil fuel industry, including COP28 President Sultan al-Jaber, CEO of Abu Dhabi National Oil Company, are pushing for carbon capture and storage technologies.But there are many doubts about the effectiveness of this solution.“If we look specifically at the energy sector, carbon capture and storage technologies will be used for at most 0.1% of global electricity production in 2030,” said Claire Fyson, a researcher at the think tank Climate Analytics, a global climate science and policy institute founded in 2008 and based in Berlin.

The Bonn meetings take place every year in June and allow negotiators to advance technical talks and prepare the ground for the subsequent COP summit in November.Failure to reach agreement on the agenda to follow could jeopardize the outcome of COP28.

Humanity is "running towards the precipice" of climate catastrophe, commented Swedish activist Greta Thunberg.“Only a 'rapid and fair' phase-out of fossil fuels will keep temperatures within the 1.5°C limit.Rich countries are signing the death warrant of millions of poor people around the world by failing to phase out fossil fuels,” Thunberg added.

A new study by Climate Analytics he showed that this catastrophe could be avoided only by increasing wind and solar energy installations five times faster than currently and reducing fossil fuel production by 6% per year by 2030.Second Climate Analytics, global fossil fuel use is expected to decline by about 40% over the decade, with a 79% reduction for coal.

International Energy Agency:“Peak in global oil demand is on the horizon”

According to a new report from the International Energy Agency (IEA), global oil demand will grow more than expected this year and will continue to grow in the coming years until reaching its peak in 2028.Then the descent will begin.

The IEA's new five-year outlook predicts a 6% increase in global consumption, up to 105.7 million barrels per day in 2028.Specifically, the IEA forecasts consumption of 102.3 million barrels of oil per day across the planet in 2023, 2.4 million barrels more than last year and for the first time above pre-existing levels. -pandemic, thanks to the push from China and India.In 2024 there will be growth of 860 thousand barrels per day, in 2028 growth will slow down further reaching 400 thousand barrels per day, presumably reaching its peak.

“The shift to a clean energy economy is accelerating, with global oil demand peaking before the end of this decade, thanks to advances in electric vehicles, energy efficiency and other technologies,” he commented the executive director of the IEA, Fatih Birol.

The trajectory of oil consumption affects carbon emissions, investment strategies and international balances.Global upstream investments in oil and gas exploration, extraction and production are expected to reach $528 billion this year, the highest level since 2015, and are capable of ensuring adequate supply of the world until 2028, the IEA said.Current investments – continues the agency – “exceed the amount that would be necessary in a world moving towards net zero emissions.For total oil demand to decline sooner, in line with the IEA scenario of net zero emissions by 2050, further action and changes from citizens would be required.”

Brazil, President Lula unveils plan to stop deforestation in the Amazon by 2030

One year after the death of the Guardian journalist, Dom Phillips, and the environmental activist, Bruno Pereira, the government of Brazil he presented the plan through which it intends to respect the commitment to eliminate deforestation in the Amazon by 2030.

A year after the killings of Dom Phillips and Bruno Pereira, the Amazon is still under threat.The Lula government must protect the forest and its people

In 2021, when Jair Bolsonaro was president, under whose administration deforestation increased, Brazil joined a 2021 pact with more than 140 countries to end deforestation globally by 2030.The new president Lula, who took office on January 1, has made it a central point of his environmental policy.

“I am committed to regaining Brazil's global leadership in mitigating climate change and controlling deforestation,” Lula said during the presentation of the plan.

The Action Plan for the prevention and control of deforestation in the Amazon establishes a coordinated policy between more than a dozen ministries until the end of Lula's mandate in 2027 and intends to strengthen the use of intelligence and satellite images to track criminal activities, regularize land titles and establish a rural registry to monitor the correct management of forests, considered vital to slowing global climate change.

Authorities will cross-reference information from the financial system (such as movements of money to pay for logging equipment or illegal mining) with the rural register, other databases and satellite images to identify loggers and illegal ranchers.The plan includes, among other things, the creation of a traceability system for wood, livestock and other agricultural products from the Amazon, at a time when importing countries increasingly require proof that they do not come from lands deforested.

In this aspect, the plan will introduce the certification of forest products, technical assistance to producers, the provision of infrastructure, energy and internet connection and the encouragement of ecotourism.The goal is to develop a green economy to support the Amazon region, without deforestation and through the recovery of degraded forests and the increase of native vegetation.In this regard, there will be economic incentives for the conservation and sustainable management of forests.

Bangladesh:Heat waves and drought are burning the tea fields and making the working conditions of the pickers extreme 

“It's too hot and I can't continue working.”Phul Kumari, 45, has been picking tea in Sreemangal, northeast Bangladesh, since she was 15: he says that I have never experienced heat and drought like this harvest season.

Sreemangal, the tea capital of Bangladesh, traditionally has the highest rainfall in the country and temperatures that, while reaching 30 degrees in summer, seem milder thanks to the cooling rain.In recent years, with the warming of the planet, temperatures have increased, reaching 39°C last May, while rainfall has practically halved compared to usual levels.

Heat waves and drought are reducing tea harvests in the region and taking a toll on tea pickers.Mini Hazra, a tea picker in Barawura, one of the tea plantations in the area, tells at the Thomson Reuters Foundation who normally could collect 50-60 kg of leaves a day, but this year she only managed to collect 15 kg a day before having to stop working, with obvious repercussions on her income.

Then there are the repercussions on the tea plants themselves.Rising temperatures expose plants to pests, such as red spider mites, which damage leaves and require the application of pesticides to control, explains Romij Uddin, professor of agronomy at Bangladesh Agricultural University.

At this time of the year the harvest is normally 4,500 kg of tea leaves per day, but this year it has seen a drop of almost 45%, explains Rony Bhowmick, director of the Sreemangal Clonal tea garden.

Faced with rising heat - a problem that is set to worsen in future years as climate-altering emissions continue to rise - tea growers say they can't do much to adapt other than providing workers with more drinking water, rest and rehydrating salts .

Tea pickers who once stopped only to drink something provided by plantation authorities at midday say they now often carry pots of water with them to try to stay hydrated more often while working in hot conditions.

Bangladesh must do much more to prepare and adapt to rapidly rising temperatures, comments Saleemul Huq, director of the International Center for Climate Change and Development in Dhaka:“Temperatures are one of the impacts of climate change that Bangladesh is not used to and which it must urgently learn to manage.We don't know for sure what the impacts will be, but it is certain that unusually high temperatures will become the norm in the future."

Iraq's oil boom has worsened the water crisis in the country's drought-stricken south

Mahdi Mutir, 57, has worked as a fisherman all his life.For years, he and his wife fed their family of seven by sailing the dense network of canals in Al Khora, a few kilometers north of Basra, Iraq.Now things have changed.At the height of the rainy season, Mutir's boat lies stranded in the mud.The cause?An ENI water station, in Iraq since 2009, which pumps large quantities of water into the ground to contribute to the extraction of oil.

“For every barrel of oil, much of which is then exported to Europe, up to three barrels of water are pumped into the ground.As oil exports increased, Iraq's water supply decreased dramatically." they write Sara Manisera and Daniela Sala in a report on Guardian.

The intensive use of water resources by oil companies that extract oil by injecting water into the land is worsening the water crisis in southern Iraq, rich in oil but extremely arid.

“Analysis of satellite images shows how over the last year a small dam, built by ENI to divert water from the Basra canal to its water treatment plant, is preventing seasonal flooding of the area where Mutir he used to fish,” write Manisera and Sala.

Another nearby plant, used by oil companies such as BP and ExxonMobil, requires water use equal to 25% of daily consumption in a region inhabited by almost 5 million people.The Qarmat Ali plant, operated by the Rumaila Operating Organization (ROO), made up of BP, PetroChina and South Oil Company of Iraq, uses water directly from the Abd Abdullah Canal, which redirects fresh water from a river before it reaches the Shatt al-Arab, the river formed by the confluence of the Euphrates and Tigris rivers, Basra's main water source.

In a statement, ENI said the company does not use fresh water, but canal water, which is salty and polluted.But according to satellite images, analyzed by the authors of the article, "the water from the canals that feed Qarmat Ali and ENI's Al Khora plant, under construction, flows a few kilometers south of the two plants into a public water treatment plant which supplies 35% of the water used by families in Basra”.

Data on carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere

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