It brings hope, says Lucina, 17, one of 13 young Hawaiian climate activists  who won an historic settlement with Hawa’ii’s department of transportation over its use of fossil fuels.

“For many of us, it’s kind of been our whole life we’re seeing our beaches falling into the water, and our coral reefs disappearing,” she says.

Keiki o ka ‘āina (children of the land) in Hawai‘i turned to the courts to assert their rights to a safe and healthy climate and ask their government to embrace its kuleana (responsibility) as a trustee for future generations by decarbonizing Hawai‘i’s transportation system.

The June 2022 lawsuit, Navahine F v Hawaii Department of Transportation, claimed the state’s fuel transportation policies violate their state constitutional rights by creating “untenable levels of greenhouse gas emissions” and thus harming the plaintiffs’ ability to “live healthful lives in Hawaii now and into the future”. The state’s constitution guarantees the right to a clean and healthful environment, the litigation argued.