UPDATE 2-U.S. appeals court orders dismissal of youth climate change lawsuit

A federal appeals court on Friday threw out a lawsuit by children and young adults who claimed they had a constitutional right to be protected from climate change, in a major setback to efforts to spur the U.S. government to address the issue. In a 2-1 decision, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said the plaintiffs, who were 8 to 19 when the lawsuit began in 2015, lacked legal standing to sue the United States.

Circuit Judge Andrew Hurwitz said the majority reached its conclusion "reluctantly," given the "compelling" evidence that the government had long promoted fossil fuels despite knowing they could cause catastrophic climate change, and that failing to change policies could hasten an "environmental apocalypse." Lawyers for the plaintiffs had no immediate comment. The U.S. Department of Justice did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Twenty-one children and young adults had accused federal officials and oil industry executives of violating their due process right to a "climate system capable of sustaining human life," by knowing for decades that carbon pollution poisons the environment but doing nothing about it. Hurwitz said the case left "little basis for denying that climate change is occurring at an increasingly rapid pace," but that addressing it required "complex policy decisions entrusted, for better or worse, to the wisdom and discretion" of the White House and Congress.

"That the other branches may have abdicated their responsibility to remediate the problem does not confer on Article III courts, no matter how well-intentioned, the ability to step into their shoes," he wrote. The dissenting judge, U.S. District Judge Josephine Staton, said the Constitution did not "condone the Nation's willful destruction" through climate change, likening government inaction to shutting down all defenses to an asteroid barreling toward earth.

"No case can singlehandedly prevent the catastrophic effects of climate change predicted by the government and scientists," she wrote. "The mere fact that this suit cannot alone halt climate change does not mean that it presents no claim suitable for judicial resolution." The judges on the panel were all appointed by President Barack Obama, a Democrat. U.S. District Judge Ann Aiken in Eugene, Oregon, had allowed the case to go forward.