Protesters at the global climate change strike in Vancouver in September 2019.
(Shutterstock)
In dismissing the youth climate case, the court acknowledged that climate change is serious, but not serious enough to reconsider the reach of the constitution.
Rising sea levels are threatening homes on Diamniadio Island, Saloum Delta in Senegal. A child stands outside a home’s former kitchen, surrounded by mangrove branches, in 2015.
(AP Photo/Jane Hahn)
Among the human rights under threat are the rights to life, health, food, a healthy environment, water, an adequate standard of living and culture.
Climate activists gather outside the Supreme Court of the Netherlands on Dec. 20, 2019, ahead of a ruling in a landmark case in which the government was ordered to slash greenhouse gas emissions by 25 per cent by 2020.
(AP Photo/Mike Corder)
A ground-breaking court case in the Netherlands could influence the way Canadian courts rule on the government’s actions on climate change.
Bushfire-related class action suits against the government have had little success in the past, but there are other benefits to pursuing a case.
Steven Saphore/AAP
In a landmark case in the Netherlands, the courts have ordered the government to cut carbon emissions. A similar strategy would be difficult in Australia, but other legal options could bring change.
Some of the young people who are part of the lawsuit filed against the federal government, seen at a press conference in Vancouver, B.C., in October 2019.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck
Two recent legal cases in Canada help explain the evolution of climate activism here and around the rest of the world.