San Francisco Frontiers - Canadian youths ask court to impose binding climate protections

The lawsuit 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 extensive opening arguments in a Vancouver court on Monday, 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, and said courts, which are not subject to political pressures, must step in to compel the government to implement actions that redress climate change.

Overall, the plaintiffs plan to prove that successive governments have violated their constitutional rights to life, liberty and security by failing to protect them from the threats of climate change.

Canadian targets currently call for a 40-45 percent reduction in greenhouse has 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 was first filed in 2019, but 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 was legally-bound to certain greenhouse gas emission targets.

Globally, environmental campaigners have brought hundreds of cases seeking government action on climate change.

The Canadian case has been compared to an action brought by youths in Germany, where a court ordered the government to strengthen emissions-reduction targets to protect the rights of young people.

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.

- 'We couldn't breathe' -

Canada is enduring more frequent and destructive wildfires, increased flooding and more frequent episodes of extreme heat.

The plaintiffs plan to show the court that they have already suffered from climate change and that the damages at issue are not speculative future risks.

Lauren Wright, a young plaintiff from Saskatchewan, recalled the 2015 wildfires in the central Canadian province that displaced thousands.

"The air was terrible. We couldn't breathe," Wright said.

The trial is opening with Carney facing increasing criticism from Canadians concerned about the environment.

The prime minister says US President Donald Trump's trade war has forced Canada to reorient 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 Carney cabinet member Steven Guilbeault, the architect of the robust climate protections pursued by Carney's predecessor, Justin Trudeau.

C.Lewis--SFF