Purpose
- Investigates the causes of economic imbalances.
- Investigates causes tending to destroy or impair the free-market system.
- Explores and develops market-based solutions.
Summary
Our Atmospheric Trust Campaign pursues constitutional litigation on behalf of youth in state, federal, and international courts to establish enforceable legal standards requiring governments to price the true costs of fossil fuel dependence—correcting the economic imbalances that have allowed carbon-intensive industries to externalize massive health and climate costs onto children and future generations while revenues flow elsewhere. Legislation can be repealed. Regulations can be reversed. Constitutional rights cannot—which is why this is the only approach that can produce durable, market-correcting climate protection that outlasts political cycles and safeguards future generations.
Purpose
We investigate and address the root cause of global economic imbalance: the systematic failure to apply the "polluter pays" principle to climate damages. Governments have affirmatively built systems that promote and subsidize fossil fuel extraction, allowing carbon-intensive industries to externalize true costs onto children, communities, and the ecosystems on which all economic activity depends. Fossil fuel subsidies confer an unfair competitive advantage, deepening harm to those least able to absorb it—the youngest generation, who have no vote and no recourse except the courts. Our work will lead to court orders requiring governments to correct these pricing failures—establishing children's enforceable right to a stable climate while creating legal frameworks that incentivize market-based solutions. When courts compel governments to price pollution, markets deliver the most efficient path to reduced emissions and a livable future.
Scope
To correct the economic imbalance driving the climate crisis, our federal, state, and international litigation targets systems generating the greatest market distortions: fossil fuel extraction subsidized by unpriced externalities, transportation locked into fossil fuel dependence, and utility commissions that bar consideration of true costs. The U.S. has contributed approximately 25% of global GHG emissions. A federal constitutional standard would impact 75 million U.S. youth, prevent over 1,029,000 MMT of CO2, and save an estimated $2.2 trillion in health and energy costs by 2050. Our state docket has the potential to prevent more than 25 billion metric tons of CO2—one of the highest returns per dollar of any market-correcting strategy. Our cases seek to enforce the polluter pays principle so that markets—freed from unpriced externalities—can find the most efficient pathway to a healthy economy that protects current and future generations.
Amount Approved$50,000.00
on 5/20/2026
(Check sent: 6/1/2026)
