A landmark climate trial that will reverberate in states and litigation across the US is set to begin Monday, when more than a dozen young people face off with the state of Montana at Lewis and Clark County District Court.
The 16 plaintiffs, led by the legal nonprofit Our Children’s Trust, sued the Montana government in 2020 claiming the state—the nation’s fifth-largest coal producer—must be held liable for homes and land degraded by climate change.
The case sets “powerful precedent,” according to Maya van Rossum, founder of the Green Amendment for the Generations national movement.
“This will be the first ...