On November 21, 2023, the Montana District Court denied State defendants’ motion for clarification and for stay of judgment pending the defendants’ appeal of the court’s August 2023 determination that a Montana Environmental Policy Act provision limiting considering of climate change violated youth plaintiffs’ right under the Montana Constitution to a clean and healthful environment. The court first concluded that it did not have jurisdiction to consider the motion for clarification because the Montana Supreme Court has accepted the case for interlocutory appeal. Regarding the motion for stay, the district court found that the defendants failed to establish a likelihood that they would succeed on the merits of their appeal. The district court rejected any contention that the relief granted in the August 2023 order was beyond the scope of the court’s power, noting that it had not ordered the defendants “to prepare and implement a remedial climate recovery plan,” but rather had enjoined the defendants from following unconstitutional statutes. The district court also found that the defendants did not establish that considering greenhouse gas emissions and climate change impacts in environmental reviews would cause any irreparable harm, finding no evidence to support the defendants’ allegations that such consideration would “undermine Montana’s energy system, increase costs to consumers, compromise grid reliability, or cause any other irreparable harms to Defendants.” The court also rejected the defendants’ allegations that they would bear increased litigation and administrative burdens. The court found, moreover, that the youth plaintiffs would experience infringement of their constitutional rights in the absence of a stay, and that “[d]epletion or degradation of the environment and natural resources also constitutes irreparable harm.” The court also found that the public interest lay “in protecting Montana’s clean and healthful environment and in protecting the constitutional rights of all Montanans, especially the youth.” 

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.

Held v. State

<p>This entry was provided by the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law. Please see the terms of use for citation and licensing of third party data.</p>

Montana Trial Court Denied State Defendants’ Motion to Stay Judgment Pending Appeal in Youth Plaintiffs’ Constitutional Climate Case

Filed

United States of America

Montana

The Climate Litigation Database

Find climate change litigation data and indicators for {text}.

{text} litigation

Sabin Center for Climate Change Law provides Climate Litigation Database, a comprehensive database of US and Global climate change caselaw

Quickly and easily search through the complete text of thousands of climate change law and policy documents from every country.

Search the Climate Litigation Database

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

Either money or something of monetary value is transferred between two or more organisations, people or countries.

Hot temperature extremes are daily maximum temperatures  that were exceeded on average once in a decade or once in 50 years, and includes heatwaves.

The release of heat-trapping gases, primarily from human activities such as burning fossil fuels, agriculture and industry.

A long-lived, colourless gas, chiefly emitted from fossil fuel combustion, deforestation and cement production.

A potent, short-lived greehouse gas, largely released from livestock, fossil fuel extraction and waste management.

Extreme weather refers to events where a weather variable exceeds (or falls below) a threshold. Meaning it is significantly different from the average or usual weather pattern.

A drought is an extended period of unusually dry weather marked by a significant and sustained lack of precipitation, falling below a specific threshold over a large area for more than a month

Air pollution involves harmful contaminants in the air, affecting both indoor and outdoor environments. It can lead to health issues like respiratory diseases and heart problems, and climate impacts such as global warming. Pollutants can damage plants, trees, habitats, and water bodies like rivers and lakes.

Production of electricity and heat from solar irradiation.

Oil is a combustible liquid fossil fuel composed mainly of hydrocarbons, occurring as crude oil and refined into petroleum products such as petrol, diesel and kerosene.

Fossil gas, commonly known as natural gas, is a fossil fuel consisting chiefly of methane with smaller amounts of other hydrocarbons and trace gases, found in underground deposits.

Coal is a combustible sedimentary rock formed from carbonised plant matter, rich in carbon and hydrocarbons, and occurring in several main types including hard coal and brown coal.

People with different national or cultural traditions from the dominant population

Social and cultural groups that share collective ancestral ties to the lands and natural resources where they live, occupy or from which they have been displaced

Activities of industries that extract natural resources, such as mining, oil, and gas, for commercial use.

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

The activities of industries involved in the production, distribution, and sale of energy, including electricity, gas, and renewables.

This sector involves activities to move goods and people, alongside the storage of products.

Slow onset events evolve gradually from incremental changes over many years or from increased frequency or intensity of recurring events. As defined in the Cancun Adaptation Framework (2010), slow onset events include risks and impacts from rising temperatures, desertification, biodiversity loss, land and forest degradation, glacial retreat, ocean acidification, sea level rise, and salinization.

Montana Trial Court Denied State Defendants’ Motion to Stay Judgment Pending Appeal in Youth Plaintiffs’ Constitutional Climate Case

Target

Risk

Impacted group

Renewable energy

Fossil fuel

Greenhouse gas

Economic sector

Finance