Victory for the Youth-Led Constitutional Climate Case Navahine F. v. Hawaii Department of Transportation!

Last month, Hawaiʻi officials announced a groundbreaking legal settlement to fully decarbonize Hawaiʻi’s transportation system by 2045. Thirteen youths from across Hawaiʻi brought the case in June 2022, arguing that their state’s transportation policies and practices contribute significantly to climate change, thus violating their constitutional rights to a clean and healthy environment. In the agreement, HDOT announced a plan to “achieve zero emissions no later than 2045 for ground transportation, sea, and inter-island air transportation.” Many of the plaintiffs are Native Hawaiians who already experience the effects of climate change, like droughts, sea level rise, and the 2023 Lahaina fire.

Navahine is part of a broader series of cases represented by Our Children’s Trust, a non-profit law firm based in Oregon. In 2015, 21 young people from across the country filed the constitutional climate lawsuit Juliana v. United States. A young Quaker from Fairbanks, Alaska, Nathan Baring, joined the case when he was fifteen years old. He is now 24, and the Department of Justice has attempted to delay or stay the case repeatedly for nine years. Quaker Earthcare Witness signed on to an amicus brief supporting the youth plaintiffs in the Juliana case. QEW was one of 15 faith-based groups that contributed to the brief, citing “the moral foundations of government stewardship and action on climate.”

Our Children’s Trust has pending litigation in Alaska, Florida, Utah, Virginia, and the federal level. Navahine was inspired by Juliana, and this triumph paves the way for local and national governments to recognize and protect the climate rights of young people.

Read a 2018 article written by Shelley Tanenbaum about the Our Children’s Trust case here.