A group of children and teens impacted by fires and flooding in Hawaii reached a new milestone in their fight against climate change.
Back in 2022, 13 young people sued the state of Hawaii for failing to do enough to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Then last year, the state agreed to a groundbreaking settlement to take actions so that by 2045, it would reach zero emissions in its transportation sector.
“This case is really signifying that you never know what you can do as a person and that everyone can make change,” plaintiff Kalalapa Winter told Here & Now last June. “And that you literally can make change that will affect generations of people, and I feel really proud to have been a part of that in our home.”
Now, the Hawaii Department of Transportation has released its plan to reduce emissions and reach that 2045 goal.
Andrea Rodgers, one of the lawyers representing the children and teens in the case, shares the latest. She’s the deputy director of U.S. strategy for the nonprofit Our Children’s Trust.
4 questions with Andrea Rodgers
Can you first remind us what exactly this case was about?
“This case is about protecting the constitutional rights of Hawaii youth to a life-sustaining climate system, as well as their rights to public trust resources that are protected under their state constitution.”
What does the Hawaii Department of Transportation’s plan include?
“On June 27, they released a draft of their energy security and waste reduction plan, which is a key milestone in implementing the settlement agreement.
“And what this plan is about, it identifies all of the strategies that need to be implemented in order to achieve zero emissions across ground, sea and inner island air transportation no later than 2045. So it really lays out the roadmap and the specific policies that need to be implemented, and it also designates roles and responsibilities. So, who should be implementing these policies? What is the timeline for doing so? And they created metrics to measure the success of the various policies.
“I would characterize the plan as a work in progress. It’s really at this point an all-of-the-above menu of options in terms of strategies that [have been] successfully implemented elsewhere. So we’re very excited that the public now has an opportunity and the communities in Hawaii have an opportunity to weigh in and provide their feedback on what changes they would like to see with their own communities.”
What sort of specific changes would take effect? What priorities ought to be changed?
“ It’s ambitious, but it’s required by science. The science is very clear that emissions need to be reduced to zero as quickly as possible in order to sustain children’s abilities to even live in Hawaii, let alone their quality of life.
“So there are very specific policies that need to be implemented. A lot of this is experimental in nature, so that’s why there’s a wide array of policies, because at this point, some things may be more successful than others. And so at this point, it’s really getting things moving forward in the direction towards decarbonization.
“ There’s a strong focus on electrification of ground transportation because the technology is already there to do that for light-duty, heavy-duty and medium-duty vehicles. So there’s a strong focus on getting the public charging infrastructure in place. Hawaii has had significant growth in electric vehicles. So we’re hopeful that that growth will continue and move forward. There’s also a strong priority in getting people out of their cars. So bike lanes, pedestrian and investments in transit is also very important.
“And then with respect to marine and aviation, there’s a wide array of strategies, looking at different kinds of fuels that can be used as well as electrification in those sectors.”
This is all playing out at the same time that the Trump administration has been taking actions to weaken efforts to fight climate change. The Justice Department is suing two states, including Hawaii, over their plans for legal action against fossil fuel companies. How could this federal opposition to climate change action affect the work that’s happening at the state level in Hawaii?
“ It certainly puts the burden more on the state to fulfill its responsibilities under the settlement agreement. The court retains jurisdiction, and so the young people are able to hold the state accountable.
“And one of the plaintiffs, [Kalalapa Winter], she’s actually suing the federal government for their actions that are taking away resources and unleashing fossil fuels on her. They’re taking actions in response to what the federal government is doing as well. And that case is called Lighthiser v. Trump.”
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Ashley Locke produced and edited this interview for broadcast with Michael Scotto. Allison Hagan adapted it for the web.
This article was originally published on WBUR.org.
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