It is unsurprising that children and youth are at the heart of recent efforts to advocate for solutions to the continuing global crisis connected with climate change. After all, they have the most to lose. In an article I wrote last year, I observed that attempts to promote government action to control greenhouse gas emissions and limit the intergenerational effects of climate change through litigation had not yet yielded positive results in Canada. However, efforts to secure climate action and promote climate justice through the courts continue and the Ontario Court of Appeal’s October 2024 decision in Mathur v. Ontario has opened the door to further judicial consideration of the issue.
Seven young Ontarians, between the ages of 12 and 24, some of whom are Indigenous, initiated the application in Mathur in 2019. The case focuses on Ontario’s target for reducing greenhouse gas emissions, provisions of the legislation under which that target was set (and that repealed earlier climate change legislation prescribing a higher target), and the Province’s climate action plan.
In Mathur, the applicants seek several declarations including that the Province’s emissions reduction target is unconstitutional and violates the rights of Ontario’s youth and future generations under ss. 7 and 15 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. They also challenge the constitutionality of the enacting legislation and request an order requiring Ontario to set a science-based emissions reduction target and to revise its climate change plan to reflect international standards.