UPDATE 1-U.S. appeals court orders dismissal of youth climate lawsuit

A federal appeals court on Friday threw out a lawsuit by children and young adults who claimed U.S. government climate policy put their future in jeopardy, a major blow to the high-profile case after a string of failed similar bids. In a 2-1 decision, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said the plaintiffs, who were ages 8 to 19 when the lawsuit began, lacked legal standing to pursue their case, and that the issues they raised should be decided by other branches of the federal government.

The decision derails the potentially far-reaching case, one of more than half a dozen similar cases filed in state courts, from Washington to Alaska, by an Oregon-based youth advocacy non-profit called Our Children's Trust. The lawsuit had first been filed in an Oregon federal court in 2015, charging that the U.S. government's environmental and energy policies violated the children's and young adults' constitutional rights to thrive in a liveable atmosphere.