A new legal challenge is putting Ottawa’s climate record squarely in the dock, as three young women and two environmental groups sue the Canadian government in a bid to force it to produce a concrete plan for meeting the country’s core climate targets.
The case lands at a moment of sharp political change, with Prime Minister Mark Carney’s government recasting Canada’s climate and energy agenda by unwinding major environmental measures even as it presses ahead with large energy and infrastructure projects aimed at cutting reliance on the United States.
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Speaking as the lawsuit was unveiled, plaintiff Shirley Barnea, a university student from Quebec, said the government owed younger Canadians a future built to last.
“Young people deserve a sustainable economy, good green jobs and a government with a credible plan to get us there,” Ms Barnea told a news conference.
The suit seeks to force the federal government “to chart a credible, up-to-date course of action” and “to protect Canadians from the worsening impacts of climate change,” according to a statement from the Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment (CAPE), which is also part of the case.
Another plaintiff, Sophia Mathur of Ontario, said the defining experiences of her generation have been shaped by climate-driven disasters. “My generation’s first decade on this planet will have been marked by wildfire seasons, floods, heat waves, and constant warnings from scientists that the window for action is closing.”
“Over the last year, we have watched the Carney government weaken, delay and repeal Canada’s key climate policies,” said Charlie Hatt, Climate Director at Equal Justice, which is bringing the challenge alongside the three plaintiffs.
‘Existential threat’
Since taking office in March 2025, centre-left Mr Carney has dismantled several environmental policies, including a carbon tax for individuals and an emissions cap for the oil and gas sector.
Mr Carney has said Canada needs to shore up its economic resilience as trade tensions with the United States deepen under US President Donald Trump. Part of that strategy, he argues, requires speeding up major energy and infrastructure developments that his government considers to be in the national interest.
Court documents describe climate change as an “existential threat” and point to the pace of warming in Canada, which they say is running at about twice the global average. In the country’s north, temperatures are rising at nearly three times that rate.
“The federal government made a promise, a legal commitment, to meet its climate targets,” said Mathur, the plaintiff. “Now it must keep its word.”
The federal government is also due to go on trial in October in a separate lawsuit alleging that the previous Trudeau administration’s handling of climate change breached the rights of young Canadians.
The case joins a wider surge in climate litigation, as campaigners in countries including Germany, the Netherlands and France turn to the courts in an effort to hold governments to account for their climate policies.
