Gov. Josh Green on Thursday announced settlement of a lawsuit against the state by 13 youth plaintiffs who alleged the state violated their constitutional rights to a livable environment by operating a transportation system that contributes to greenhouse gas emissions and climate change.
Green called the plaintiffs — who were ages 9 to 18 when Navahine v. Hawaii Department of Transportation was filed in 2022 — “young leaders who are passionate about saving this planet.”
“A year ago, we had a tragedy, in large part because of climate change,” Green said, referring to the Aug. 8, 2023, wildfire that killed more than 100 people on Maui and left thousands homeless. “This is a priority because we know now that climate change is here. It’s not something that we are considering in an abstract way for the future. It is absolutely here, in the moment.”
The settlement agreement — which averted a trial that was set to start on Monday — includes numerous provisions for immediate and ongoing action by the DOT, including:
• Establishing a greenhouse gas reduction plan within a year, laying a foundation and road map to de-carbonize Hawaii’s transportation system by 2045.
• Creating a unit within DOT to coordinate the mission of greenhouse gas reduction throughout the agency.
• Establishing a volunteer youth council to advise DOT on mitigation and adaptation commitments in the years to come.
• Improving the state transportation infrastructure budgeting process to prioritize reduction of greenhouse gases and vehicles miles traveled and transparently analyze and disclose the impacts of each project and the overall program.
• Making immediate, ambitious investments in clean transportation infrastructure, including completing pedestrian, bicycle and transit networks in five years, and dedicating a minimum of $40 million to expanding the public electric vehicle charging network by 2030.
There were no monetary awards in the lawsuit settlement, but Deputy Attorney General Ciara Kahahane estimated it would’ve cost the state $3 million to take the case to trial.
The young plaintiffs, represented by co-counsel from Our Children’s Trust and Earth Justice, said that despite Hawaii being a leader among states in acknowledging the dangers of climate change, the state was projected to fall significantly short of its own goal of net-negative carbon emissions by 2045.
The lawsuit argued that the state was not only failing to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the transportation sector, but was “heading in the opposite direction,” citing investments in infrastructure like highways as running counter to its goals.
Andrea Rodgers of Our Children’s Trust, a co-counsel for the young environmental activists, called the agreement between the plaintiffs and the state an “unprecedented lawsuit settlement that is truly one for the ages.”
“The settlement agreement represents transformative change towards the protection of young people’s constitutional rights to a livable planet,” Rodgers said.
During Thursday’s press conference, Green — who, as a lawmaker, was one of the architects of the state’s policy of 100% renewable energy by 2045 — expressed his admiration for the youthful environmentalists.
“Our generation just hasn’t done a good enough job to control what happens in the atmosphere and how we’re destroying our ozone. So, they were fighting this fight,” Green said.
“We are the most isolated land mass on the planet,” he said. “We’re too dependent on fossil fuels. We’re vulnerable to climate change impacts, like sea level rise, coastal erosion, extreme weather events — as we saw on Maui — and coral bleaching, which is devastating to the fauna there in the ocean. So it’s very important that they stand up for the future.”
Green also signed five bills related to the environment and the state’s renewable energy goals into law Thursday.
Reuters contributed to this story.
Email John Burnett at jburnett@hawaiitribune-herald.com.