Groundbreaking youth-led climate trial comes to an end in Montana

Ruling could take weeks to emerge in trial for Held v Montana, which is the first constitutional climate trial in US history

A groundbreaking climate trial came to an early close on Tuesday as lawyers on each side presented a very different picture of who can be held responsible for the climate crisis.

Attorneys representing the lawsuit's young challengers said Montana officials and agencies must be held accountable for exacerbating the crisis, and thereby violating the plaintiffs' state constitutional rights. But the defense argued that climate change is a global problem, and that if Montana is contributing to it, plaintiffs should work to change that through the legislature.