Young Canadians sue federal government over climate change inaction

VANCOUVER — Fifteen young Canadians will argue in a Vancouver courtroom later this month that the federal government has violated their constitutional rights by failing to sufficiently cut greenhouse gas emissions.

The group, all aged 17 to 24, will appear in Federal Court on Oct. 26 for the start of a five-week trial, arguing successive governments have violated their rights to life, liberty and security.

"There has to be accountability and Canadians deserve that," said co-plaintiff Lauren Wright, 22.

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The legal battle began in 2019 and was initially dismissed, but a federal appeals court ruled in 2023 the group was entitled to a trial.

Kira Young, 20, is from Yellowknife, where a wildfire forced an evacuation order for all nearly 20,000 residents in the summer of 2023.

She said she and her family "had to pack up everything we could into our car and leave our home," driving 18 hours south to safety.

The message of her lawsuit is that climate change "is a challenge we can address. There is hope," she said.

Wright told AFP that devastating events fueled by rising global temperatures "can’t just keep happening."

"It can’t just be a ‘oops, we missed (our emissions targets) again because we were looking somewhere else,’" she said.

The trial is part of a growing global movement of environmental activists using courts to force government action on climate change.

In 2024, the European Court of Human Rights ruled in favor of retired Swiss women who argued Switzerland had not done enough to confront climate change.

The following year, the International Court of Justice issued a landmark advisory opinion that states are obligated to protect the climate for present and future generations.

A federal government report released last month said that since 1970 temperatures in Canada have risen nearly twice as fast as the global average.

Wildfires made more common and severe by global warming have scorched record amounts of land in recent years.

For Albert Lalonde, a 24-year-old plaintiff, "young people are confronted with the question of how to plan ahead, how to build a life in a world that is going through collapse."

He argued the current policies of Prime Minister Mark Carney’s government are making things worse.

Carney has voiced support for increased oil production, citing the industry as a key tool to help reduce Canada’s economic reliance on the United States.

He has also conceded the ambitious climate targets set by his predecessor, Justin Trudeau, are not feasible.

"We could never have imagined that our lawsuit would take place in the current context of backsliding on every front of the climate and environmental question," Lalonde told AFP.

"We are literally going back to the 1970s," he said, voicing hope the trial will "send a signal."

With files from Kuwait Times