22 Aug 2023

Montana's Claire Vlases celebrates major climate court win

From First Up, 5:33 am on 22 August 2023

There was a major victory for young people last week in a court case in the US state of Montana. Sixteen people, from five to 22 years old, claimed the state's policies are supporting the fossil fuel industry, contributing to climate change and breaching their constitutional right to live in a healthy environment. And in a landmark decision the state judge sided with them. It's beeing seen as one of the strongest climate change judgments, and could inspire a surge of climate-related legal actions. One of those young plaintiffs from Montana - Claire Vlases - is currently in Aotearoa. She told Nathan Rarere how she ended up in court.