Eighteen months after Gov. Josh Green signed a historic legal settlement with a group of young climate activists, Hawaii state lawmakers will attempt something few if any legislative bodies have managed in the United States: codify a real-world plan to decarbonize the state’s transportation system by 2045.
As part of the climate suit settlement, the Hawaii Department of Transportation last year published a plan that serves a road map for cutting the state’s pollution. The state Legislature will take up the crucial questions of cost and funding when it meets later this month.
The outcome isn’t guaranteed, but environmentalists said they’re optimistic the state will take decisive action.
“This is the best remedy ever achieved in a climate change case,” said Andrea Rodgers, an attorney for Our Children’s Trust who worked on the suit. “This is systemic change happening within an agency to prioritize greenhouse gas emission reductions that is being supervised by a court, if needed.”
