The Montana Supreme Court denied the State of Montana’s petition for a writ of supervisory control dismissing youth plaintiffs’ request for injunctive relief in their climate change lawsuit alleging that the State Energy Policy and the “Climate Change Exception” to the Montana Environmental Policy Act violate the Montana Constitution. The State had contended in a motion filed in the district court on May 6, 2022 that the district court’s failure to dismiss the request for injunctive relief in its August 2021 order on the State’s motion to dismiss was inadvertent. The State filed its petition in the Supreme Court on June 10. Noting that supervisory control is an “extraordinary remedy,” the Supreme Court found that the State had attempted to “manufacture urgency or emergency factors” to justify the relief by waiting nine months to resolve claimed “confusion” regarding the order on the motion to dismiss and “then claiming a crisis exists” when the district court did not immediately rule on its motions.

Lawsuit seeking declaration of right under the Montana constitution to a stable climate system and to compel Montana to prepare and implement a remedial plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

State v. Montana First Judicial District Court

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Montana Supreme Court Declined to Step in to Dismiss State’s Request for Injunctive Relief in Youths’ Climate Case

Filed

United States of America

Montana

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An aim to achieve a quantifiable outcome within a given time-frame, set by an institution such as a national government.

Policy instruments are techniques or tools used by governing authorities to promote certain policies in order to achieve predetermined goals. Put simply, instruments are how a government tries to achieve its goals, with this taxonomy being focused on national policy instruments.

Risk is the potential for adverse consequences resulting from the dynamic interplay between (climate-related) hazards, exposure, and vulnerability of affected human or ecological systems.

Groups  of people who are adversely affected by climate change or the response to it

A set of principles, processes, and practices that build economic and political power to shift from an extractive economy to a regenerative economy.

Justice is the ethical and political framework that addresses fairness, including issues of responsibility, rights, and structural inequity.

Renewable energy means all forms of energy produced from renewable sources in a sustainable manner.

Fossil fuel is a generic term for non-renewable energy sources such as coal, fossil gas, and oil (including crude oil, and petroleum products), that can be used for electricity and heat generation. Fossil fuels are hydrocarbons formed from pressurised and heated organic material buried over millions of years.

Molecules in the atmosphere that play a key role in the greenhouse effect by trapping heat radiating from Earth’s surface.

Area of the economy in which actors engage in identical or related activities.

In human systems, the process of adjustment to actual or expected climate change and its effects, in order to moderate harm, increase resilience or exploit beneficial opportunities. In natural systems, the process of adjustment to actual climate change and its effects; human intervention may facilitate adjustment to expected climate change and its effects.

The management and allocation of funds, assets and investments to meet various objectives

The activities of industries that transforms raw materials into finished goods through industrial processes.

Montana Supreme Court Declined to Step in to Dismiss State’s Request for Injunctive Relief in Youths’ Climate Case

Economic sector