Limits Of Climate Change Suits Against The Government: Mathur V. Ontario Decision

The Superior Court of Justice has now released its decision in Mathur v. Ontario, a case we wrote about earlier this year and which is now a further example of an unsuccessful claim against a government in respect of climate change. The lawsuit involved an application brought by seven Ontario youth claiming, among other things, that Ontario's legislated targets and plans for reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions were not stringent enough to combat climate change and, therefore, infringed their constitutional Charter rights. Although the Court had sympathy for many of the applicants' arguments and held that most of the issues raised by the applicants were justiciable by the Court, it nevertheless dismissed the application as it found no Charter violations.