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As the climate crisis threatens their land, food, and traditions, 14 youth advocates took the Hawai‘i Department of Transportation to court to spur climate action.

Transportation Department commits to bold action to achieve 2045 zero emission goals

Youth plaintiffs Navahine F., et. al, and Edwin Sniffen, in his official capacity as HDOT Director, have executed a Settlement Agreement.

Isaac Moriwake, Managing Attorney, Mid-Pacific Office: “Rooftop solar is our No. 1 success story. It jumpstarted our renewable energy growth and also captured the public’s imagination. We’ve made progress on the electric side, but we are not making progress overall. We are not going to get to our overall decarbonization goals unless we confront the…

Isaac Moriwake, managing attorney of Earthjustice’s Mid-Pacific Office, explains the constitutional climate lawsuit files by 14 young people against the Hawaiʻi Department of Transportation (HDOT); HDOT Director Jade Butay; Governor David Ige; and the State of Hawaiʻi.

Kylie Wager Cruz, Attorney, Mid-Pacific Office, Earthjustice: “We have an opportunity with this case to transform Hawaii’s transportation system to benefit all of Hawaii’s people.”

First Circuit Judge John Tonaki will hear arguments in the lawsuit beginning in June 2024.

State Transportation Department sought to postpone trial 8-12 months

Case argues state’s transportation system causes high levels of greenhouse gas emissions, violating youth plaintiffs’ state constitutional rights and public trust doctrine

Leina’ala Ley, Attorney, Mid-Pacific Office: “While other sectors have taken significant steps in the past few decades to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, the Hawaii Department of Transportation remains trapped in the past, doing business as usual and failing to take advantage of opportunities that are available now to provide Hawaii’s residents with more and cleaner…

Navahine F. v. Hawai’i Department of Transportation argues state’s transportation system causes high levels of greenhouse gas emissions, violating youth plaintiffs’ state constitutional rights and public trust doctrine

Leinā‘ala Ley, Attorney, Mid-Pacific Office, Earthjustice: “We don’t have to look to the future here. We can just look unfortunately to the present to see the kind of havoc that climate change is wreaking.”

14 young people filed a constitutional climate lawsuit against the Hawaiʻi Department of Transportation (HDOT); HDOT Director Jade Butay; Governor David Ige; and the State of Hawaiʻi. In Navahine F. v. Hawaiʻi Department of Transportation, the youth plaintiffs claim that their state DOT’s active operation of a transportation system that results in high levels of greenhouse…

14 young people filed a new constitutional climate lawsuit against the Hawai‘i Department of Transportation (HDOT); HDOT Director Jade Butay; Government David Ige; and the State of Hawai‘i. In Navahine F. v. Hawai‘i Department of Transportation, the youth plaintiffs claim that their state DOT’s active operation of a transportation system that results in high levels of greenhouse gas emissions is causing significant harm to their communities, violates their constitutional rights, and undermines their ability to “live healthful lives in Hawai‘i now and into the future.”

Children growing up today face at least twice as many extreme climate events such as heat waves and floods in the course of their lives compared to people born in 1960

Youth Plaintiffs are children of Hawai‘i — keiki o ka ‘āina (children of this land) — who are being seriously injured because Defendants establish, maintain, and operate a state transportation system that violates Hawai‘i constitutional mandates to protect public trust resources and the environment by reducing greenhouse gas emissions and decarbonizing the transportation sector.