VANCOUVER — A landmark trial pitting young Canadians against the federal government over its alleged climate policy failures opened on Oct 26, with lawyers for the youths describing climate change as a “grave threat” that cannot be left to politicians alone.
The lawsuit, brought by 15 plaintiffs aged 17-25, is part of a growing global movement among environmental activists seeking to use courts to force government accountability on climate change.
The plaintiffs’ lawyer, Catherine Boies Parker, delivered opening arguments in a Vancouver court on Oct 26, challenging the notion that the government response to human-caused global warming can be “left to where the political winds are blowing at any given moment.”
“This case is about the most fundamental rights of children in Canada,” she argued, saying courts, which are not subject to political pressures, must step in to compel the government to implement actions that address climate change.
Overall, the plaintiffs plan to prove that successive governments have violated their constitutional rights to life and security by failing to protect them from the threats posed by climate change.
Canadian targets currently call for a 40-45% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 compared with 2005 levels, but Prime Minister Mark Carney’s government has already indicated those benchmarks may be missed.
A global problem
The lawsuit, first filed in 2019, was initially dismissed. In 2023, a federal appeals court ruled the youths were entitled to a trial.
The case is unprecedented in Canada, where federal courts have never tested whether climate protections are a constitutional issue.
A government lawyer, BJ Wray, argued the plaintiffs are seeking to impose “an obligation on the government that the government has no way of satisfying”.
“Climate change is a global problem that can only be remedied with a global solution,” Wray argued, saying the plaintiffs might still experience harms from climate change even if Ottawa were legally bound to specific greenhouse gas emission targets.
The first plaintiff to testify was 20-year-old Kira Young, from Yellowknife in the Northwest Territories, which, like the rest of northern Canada, is warming at a faster rate than southern Canada.
Young recounted an August 2023 wildfire that forced her family to evacuate, driving through smoke and flames as the blaze approached the family home.
“I was terrified,” she said, adding that she feels compelled to fight for a future where fewer people need to pack up their lives “in less than 36 hours” to escape a fast-moving wildfire.
The plaintiffs plan to show the court that they have already suffered extensively from climate change and that the damages at issue are not speculative future risks.
Emerging body of law
Globally, environmental campaigners have brought hundreds of cases seeking government action on climate change.
Maria Antonia Tigre, director of Global Climate Change Litigation at Columbia University’s Sabin Center, noted that climate judgments are “travelling across jurisdictions”.
The Canadian case “could really contribute to that developing body of law”, she said.
Canada is enduring more frequent and destructive wildfires, increased flooding and more frequent episodes of extreme.
Carney remains popular nationally but has faced criticism from people concerned about the environment.
The prime minister says US President Donald Trump’s trade war has forced Canada to re-orient its economy away from dependence on the United States.
Part of his economic strategy includes boosting oil production in the western province of Alberta, including through a proposed new pipeline to the Pacific coast.
That project, along with other moves like scrapping the carbon tax on individual households, prompted the resignation of former cabinet member Steven Guilbeault, the architect of the robust climate protections pursued by Carney’s predecessor, Justin Trudeau. AFP