Last year, we featured CC alum Rikki Held ’23 and her involvement in the court case Held v. Montana, the first-ever constitutional climate trial in United States history, led by a group of Montana youth. Held’s group won that case and, after several appeals by the state, Montana’s Supreme Court upheld the decision. We reached out to Held to get her reaction.
Held says: Now that we have this decision, we are hoping, and expecting, it will prompt the state of Montana to transition to a renewable energy system, which is necessary to protect our constitutional rights, including our right to a stable climate system. My fellow plaintiffs and I, along with our legal team, are committed to ensuring the implementation of this ruling.
I’m excited about this decision because the Montana Supreme Court affirmed Judge Seeley’s District Court ruling, which found our state is significantly contributing to global climate change, which is degrading Montana’s environment and violating our state constitutional rights to a clean and healthful environment. The Supreme Court made it clear we have a constitutional right to a stable climate system, which is equivalent to 350ppm of atmospheric CO2. (We are currently above 420ppm.) The Supreme Court also noted, in response to Montana arguing it should not have to address this issue due to its global scale, that this is equivalent to the jumping off the bridge fallacy where just because other governments are not decreasing emissions, this does not allow Montana to ignore its affirmative duty to act in compliance with our right to a clean and healthful environment. We’re hoping this decision will motivate further climate litigation efforts and influence decisions even outside of Montana.
I am continuing my Peace Corps service in Kenya, teaching high school chemistry and biology, and my community counterparts and I are also working on projects such as a solar project for the school. After Peace Corps, I plan to attend graduate school studying earth and climate science.