Our Constitution, Our Climate, Our Kids: Is There a Right not to Be Harmed by Climate Change?

Philip Gregory, Partner, Cotchett, Pitre & McCarthy, LLP
Tia Hatton, Youth Plaintiff in Constitutional and Public Trust Case
Julia Olson, Executive Director, Our Children's Trust

Climate change has an immediate, disproportionate effect on our youth, present and future generations. As with the civil rights movement, young people are turning to courts and regulatory bodies to require governments to implement plans to phase out pollution in line with science. The question is this: Do present and future generations have a constitutional right to be protected from invasive and destructive environmental harm, danger and damage?