Lafayette, County Law Builds on Growing Rights-Based Efforts to Stop Climate Change. A Press Release from the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund, from April 5, 2017.

Lafayette, Colorado:  On March 22nd, the City Council ofLafayette, Colorado, became the first municipality in the state to recognize a right to a healthy climate for people and nature, and to ban the extraction of oil and gas as a violation of that right.

The Ordinance was drafted by the Boulder County Protectors, with assistance from the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund (CELDF).

The Lafayette Ordinance is one of several across the United States to assert the right to climate.  The “right to a healthy climate” was recently recognized as a federal constitutional right by Judge Ann Aiken of the United States District Court in Oregon.

In Spokane, Washington, a federal lawsuit has been filed which seeks a finding that the rail transportation of oil and coal violates the right to climate for Spokane residents. In Bowling Green, Ohio, community members recently launched a campaign to qualify a right to climate initiative to the November ballot. CELDF is providing assistance to each community. MORE…