Environmental Rights Amendment Resources — Climate Equity Policy Center

Environmental Rights

Amendments

Environmental rights amendments provide people with the constitutional right to a clean and healthy environment. The right to a clean and healthy environment can help to address climate change and can be a tool to accomplish environmental justice goals.

Our resources include a model environmental rights amendment, two factsheets, a legal memo, a resource with the text of existing environmental rights amendments, and a chart analyzing existing environmental rights amendments.

Model Policy

The model environmental rights amendment includes an introduction, model language, explanatory comments, and a number of optional provisions. To tailor, download the amendment text as a Word document.
Factsheet: Environmental Rights Amendments in Brief

This factsheet provides a brief overview of what an environmental rights amendment is and how it can advance climate protection and environmental justice.
Factsheet: The Essentials of Environmental Rights Amendments

This factsheet provides a brief overview of what an environmental rights amendment is and how it can advance climate protection and environmental justice.
Memo Accompanying Model State Environmental Rights Amendment

This memo provides a more detailed overview of the nature of an environmental rights amendment, the benefits of such an amendment, legal considerations, and the contents of the model amendment.
Existing Environmental Rights Amendments

This resource provides the text for each existing state environmental rights amendment.
Chart Analyzing Existing Environmental Rights Amendments

This chart allows a comparison of existing environmental rights amendments and includes a legal analysis of the text and relevant caselaw for each amendment.