Federal appeals court blocks attempt to allow anti-fossil fuel climate suit to go to trial

A federal appeals court on Wednesday rejected a climate lawsuit brought about by Our Children’s Trust, a nonprofit that organizes young people to sue government agencies on the argument that their rights are being violated by continued fossil fuel production.

The case was originally filed in 2015. In 2020, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals dismissed the case, saying that U.S. energy policy should be determined by elected representatives of voters and not judges, according to the Associated Press. 

However, U.S. District Judge Ann Aiken, a Bill Clinton nominee in Eugene, Oregon, ruled the case could go to trial. In her ruling, Aiken argued that climate change threatens the existence of the human race, and the urgency of the case justifies it proceeding.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a U.N. consortium of the world’s leading scientists, doesn’t support the claim that climate change could make the planet uninhabitable, even under the most extreme emissions scenario.

Wednesday's ruling requires Aiken to dismiss the case, which she did.

In a statement on the decision, Julia Olson, an attorney with Our Children’s Trust, which has received funding from the anti-fossil fuel Rockefeller Foundation, called the ruling “tragic and unjust.”

“It is not over. President Biden can still make this right by coming to the settlement table. And the full Ninth Circuit can correct this mistake,” Olson said.