In Montana a group of young people defeated the oil giants in court

A group of young people from Montana, a western US state, has won an important environmental case in court:the judge he thought the law in force is unconstitutional which does not provide - indeed prohibits - from take into consideration the polluting impact of fossil fuel projects at the time of their approval.“The government is violating the rights of young people,” the ruling reads, “and the state's greenhouse gas emissions have proven to be a substantial factor in cause negative climate impacts on the environment, harming the plaintiffs."From now on, taking into account the judge's decision, Montana, on whose territory there are 5 thousand gas wells, 4 thousand oil wells, four oil refineries and six coal mines, before approving or renewing projects that have to generate emissions, will have to evaluate its effect on the Planet.

The 16 young people - aged between 5 and 22 - who dragged the State to court in 2020 argue that the unrestricted authorizations granted for the production of coal and natural gas have exacerbated the climate crisis, breaking that amendment to the Constitution of 1972 whereby Montana has the duty to protect the environment.“Plaintiffs have a fundamental constitutional right to a clean and healthy environment,” underlined the judge, whereby “the State and individuals are responsible for maintaining and improving the ecosystem for present and future generations“.

Some of the young people in the group took part in the process to explain, firsthand, how climate change has affected and changed their lives.Rikki Held, 22, told how the drought stunned his animals, killing some.For this reason «the sentence in Montana is a turning point in this generation's efforts to save the planet from the devastating effects of human-caused climate chaos,” explained Julia Olson, head of Our Children’s Trust, a nonprofit law firm that has represented young people in court.“More sentences like this will surely come.”Meanwhile, the Montana attorney general's office stated that the state will appeal, and that he will appeal to the Supreme Court.

Even though the case in question is the first climate trial case, conducted by young people, to reach a sentence in the United States, ongoing dozens of disputes which aim to hold companies and governments around the world to their environmental responsibilities.For example, fossil multinationals such as Exxon and Chevron they are accused of having remained silent despite knowing for some time that their actions would fueled global warming.Shell, one of the four main global private players in the oil and natural gas sector, has for example been dragged to court several times.One of the latest episodes dates back to last February, when around 14,000 people, belonging to two different Nigerian communities, after years of attempts managed to turn to the High Court in London - a court that supervises the actions of the lower ones - to demand justice against the giant of fossil fuels, accusing it of having knowingly polluted – ignoring the systemic oil spills from its pipelines – their water sources.

However, at least for now, the numerous complaints do not seem to affect the work of the oil companies:the largest of these recorded in 2022 alone record annual profits thanks to the increase in hydrocarbon prices.Shell's profits, specifically, reached $39.9 billion, double the previous year and the highest in its 115-year history:they surpassed, in fact, its previous record of 2008 of 31 billion dollars.

[by Gloria Ferrari]