by Bridgett Ennis, Yale Climate Connections
August 17, 2026
Young people in Hawaii now meet regularly with the state’s Department of Transportation to offer input on public transit, bike lanes, and other strategies to help the department transition away from fossil fuels.
Establishing the Hawai‘i Youth Transportation Council was just one of the outcomes of the landmark 2024 settlement of the Navahine v. Hawai‘i DOT lawsuit, which was brought by 13 young plaintiffs. Their lawsuit alleged that the DOT wasn’t making progress toward the climate goals set by the state, violating the plaintiffs’ constitutional right to a clean and healthful environment.
They settled the lawsuit in 2024 before it went to trial, and the DOT is now required to decarbonize transportation by 2045 and, through the youth council, to listen and incorporate the priorities of young Hawaiians.
Yale Climate Connections spoke with Charlotte Madin, one of the plaintiffs, and with Joanna Zeigler, a staff attorney at Our Children’s Trust who led the case.
This interview has been edited and shortened for clarity.
Yale Climate Connections: Charlotte, what got you concerned about climate change in the first place?
Charlotte Madin: I was born in Sydney, Australia, and I lived there until I was eight years old. And while I lived there, my family and I would often experience really large heat waves that would make us essentially have to evacuate our home and go to the nearest air-conditioned place because my mother was concerned that my sister and I would be sick or have health concerns due to this heat.
The entire time I’ve lived in Hawaii, about eight years now, I’ve noticed the beautiful ocean and the biodiversity of the coral reefs just slowly becoming less and less healthy, which is really challenging to see, especially since both my parents are marine biologists. So seeing that happen in real time in front of me was really scary. And then, in 2021, I was on the Big Island when there was a really large fire. There was ash raining from the sky. My grandmother had a concussion and couldn’t get to the hospital because the fire was blocking a route.
YCC: What inspired you to get involved in the lawsuit and to become a plaintiff?
Madin: When I was 12 years old, I did a short presentation for my community organization with a friend, and soon afterward she mentioned a lawsuit that she was joining that she told me would help us have a cleaner and healthier environment. Then later, her mom reached out and asked my mom, “Does your daughter want to join?” And I was like, “Yeah, if there’s a chance to help the environment while I’m still young, getting started early, I’ll take it.”
I had always been interested in climate change and in environmentalism and how we can sustain our climate for as long as possible, if not forever. And this just seemed like a really great jumping-off point for me.
YCC: Can you tell me a little bit about what it was like being a plaintiff?
Madin: I wasn’t really sure what was going to be expected of me when I joined the case. But over time it became clear that it was really helpful for me to appear at events surrounding our case to muster support from the community. As for the actual legal dealings, I was deposed by lawyers from the Hawai’i Department of Transportation when I was 13 or 14, which was quite an experience. It was a lot of questions for three or four hours. And so that was probably one of the most defining moments of my career as a plaintiff in this case.
YCC: That must have been very intimidating. What was that like, and what did you do to prepare for that?
Madin: Yeah, it was very intimidating. I remember being really, really nervous for the days leading up to the deposition. But I was told to tell the truth – you know, they won’t be able to find anything wrong with that, take it slow, take a deep breath if you need to, and don’t feel pressured to answer anything. And that advice served me well throughout the deposition. By the end of it, I was exhausted, but I was really happy and proud of what I accomplished and what I’d done.
YCC: Can either of you give me a little bit of an overview of what the lawsuit alleged?
Joanna Zeigler: There were two constitutional provisions that were brought in the lawsuit. The first one is the public trust doctrine, which provides that the state shall conserve and protect Hawaii’s natural beauty and all of its natural resources for the benefit of present and future generations. The second constitutional provision brought in the case was the right to a clean and healthful environment. And that gives each person the right to a clean and healthful environment as defined by the Hawaii statutes.
YCC: How much was the Department of Transportation relying on fossil fuels when this began? And can you put that in the context of any carbon reduction goals or mandates that had already been set prior to this?
Zeigler: The transportation sector is the largest source of greenhouse gas emissions in Hawaii, and transportation emissions are projected to continue to rise. Historically, HDOT’s planning of ground transportation has been very car-centric, prioritizing projects such as road expansion and maintenance rather than projects that reduce greenhouse gas emissions, such as pedestrian, bicycle, and transit expansion and expansion of EV infrastructure. So without breaking that “business-as-usual” planning process of planning for more and more cars on the road, emissions from transportation would continue to be a problem.
YCC: What are some of the major points that the settlement requires the government to do?
Zeigler: The settlement requires HDOT to decarbonize the transportation sector by 2045, which means zero emissions from ground, marine, and interisland air transportation. And the settlement provides benchmarks and requirements for what HDOT needs to do to reach zero emissions.
So for example, HDOT agreed to draft a greenhouse gas reduction plan, which is its road map to how it will reach zero emissions by 2045, with benchmarks for 2030, 2035, and 2040. HDOT also agreed to complete the pedestrian, bicycle, and transit network within five years of when the settlement was reached and increase EV infrastructure.
And so this settlement is a complement to the state laws which require statewide net-negative emissions by 2045 and require HDOT to decarbonize the transportation sector. But now we have this enforceable contract to help hold HDOT accountable for its part in decarbonizing the transportation sector. So the youth are in a contract with HDOT, and HDOT has made these promises to the youth to decarbonize.
And one other aspect of the settlement is that HDOT created the youth council. It’s an opportunity for youth from across Hawaii to provide feedback and let HDOT know what their priorities are so that HDOT can take those into consideration when it’s planning and prioritizing projects.
So there are so many aspects of the settlement that are really exciting, and watching it unfold has been a tremendous accomplishment.
YCC: What is the significance of this particular case?
Zeigler: This is the first youth-led climate change case to have reached a settlement agreement, and HDOT came to an agreement that will have a tremendous impact on the youth’s future and the future of Hawaii. This is an example of what can be accomplished when government works with the youth, rather than against them, by sitting down at the table and truly listening to why the youth brought the case and what they were hoping to accomplish.
So with the settlement, HDOT has a backstop to the policies and practices that it puts in place, and the legislature also has a role to play to make sure that the state policies are in place to promote decarbonizing transportation so that HDOT can fulfill its agreement. Other states can look to the progress that Hawaii is making and how it is improving the lives of its citizens and hopefully use Hawaii as a model for what can be accomplished with government cooperation.
YCC: Are youth lawsuits an effective approach to climate action and to holding some of these entities accountable?
Zeigler: Courts have a role to play in climate justice because the courts are there to ensure that the legislative and executive branches are acting within the confines of state statutes, or as in our cases, within the confines of the state or United States Constitution. So in our system of checks and balances, the court must interpret the Constitution and make sure that the actions of the state are not violating these youths’ fundamental rights, which include the right to live in a world with a stable climate system.
YCC: Charlotte, what are some of the parts of the plan that you’re most excited about and some of the priorities that you want to make sure are seen through throughout this process?
Madin: I love the youth council aspect of the plan, and it’s been super exciting because I get to meet all these incredible young people from all around Hawaii and to hear their ideas and what they hope for, and to also be able to have this voice in not only the Hawaii Department of Transportation’s planning, but also, because of this, being given an intro into legislation and how bills work.
YCC: Is there anything else that either of you wanted to add to help people understand about this?
Madin: Well, I guess a message for the young people out there: You always have a voice, and you always have a choice with how you use that. And utilizing the power of democracy and utilizing the legal system, you can do big things with your voice. So never give up your voice, and don’t let others silence you. Just do what you believe, and everything will work out fine in the end.
This <a target=”_blank” href=”https://yaleclimateconnections.org/2026/08/what-happened-after-13-young-hawaiians-sued-over-climate-change/”>article</a> first appeared on <a target=”_blank” href=”https://yaleclimateconnections.org”>Yale Climate Connections</a> and is republished here under a <a target=”_blank” href=”https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/”>Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License</a>.<img src=”https://i0.wp.com/yaleclimateconnections.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/ycc-favicon.png?resize=100%2C100&ssl=1″ style=”width:1em;height:1em;margin-left:10px;”>
<img id=”republication-tracker-tool-source” src=”https://yaleclimateconnections.org/?republication-pixel=true&post=141380&ga4=1401ERFF5Q” style=”width:1px;height:1px;”><script> PARSELY = { autotrack: false, onload: function() { PARSELY.beacon.trackPageView({ url: “https://yaleclimateconnections.org/2026/08/what-happened-after-13-young-hawaiians-sued-over-climate-change/”, urlref: window.location.href }); } } </script> <script id=”parsely-cfg” src=”//cdn.parsely.com/keys/yaleclimateconnections.org/p.js”></script>
