From the streets to the polls, and recently, the courtrooms, young people are at the forefront of the climate justice movement.
Around the world, youth are using climate litigation to set legal precedents and hold decision-makers to account for fuelling the climate crisis and gambling with their futures.
What is climate litigation (and why does it matter)?
International courts have made it clear: climate change is a human rights issue.
It is also an intergenerational justice issue — meaning the actions of past and present generations directly impacts the well-being and safety of future generations, as young people will bear the brunt of climate harms if we continue down the path of inaction.
Across the globe, youth are standing up for their rights and courageously speaking truth to power. After years of urging their governments around the world to act and protect their rights to a climate-safe future, youth are turning to a new powerful weapon in the fight for a climate safe future: the courts.
In Canada and around the world, climate lawsuits are pushing the boundaries of environmental and constitutional law. And the young people spearheading many of these cases are becoming powerful symbols of hope in the climate movement.
What makes climate litigation so powerful is that it backs up climate action with the power of the law. Over the last three decades, a lot of politicians have made climate promises — but very few follow through. On an existential threat like the climate crisis, we don’t have time to wait for politicians to get it right and climate litigation gives citizens the tools to hit back when politicians harm the climate or when they go back on their promises.
A growing, global movement
Youth-led lawsuits are proving to be a gamechanger in the fight against the climate crisis.
From July 2020 to December 2022 alone, 630 new climate lawsuits were filed around the world, with the total number of climate cases more than doubling since 2017. These cases range from challenging government approvals or climate harming fossil fuel projects, to wide-ranging constitutional challenges that force governments to set nation wide climate targets and draw down overall emissions.
These citizen-led climate cases are having real world impact.
Courts around the world are increasingly siding with citizens and forcing governments to tackle the climate crisis, and we believe that it’s only a matter of time before here in Canada our courts recognize that governments who fuel the climate crisis are violating the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedom.
Here are three youth-led climate cases that are making waves globally.
IN EUROPE: Urgenda v. Netherlands
We can’t talk about climate litigation without talking about the history-making Urgenda case. Brought by the Urgenda Foundation on behalf of nearly 900 Dutch citizens, including many from younger generations, this case set a powerful legal precedent worldwide first in 2015 and then in December 2019, when the Dutch Supreme Court ruled that the government must adopt stricter emissions targets and has a legal duty to protect its citizens from climate harms. For citizens around the world it marked a pivotal moment – by appealing to the law they had gained a powerful tool in holding complacent politicians to account. Ignore our future and we’ll see you in Court!
This sparked youth-led climate litigation in Belgium, Ireland, Canada, and beyond.
IN THE UNITED STATES: Montana v. Held
A group of 16 young people won a landmark climate lawsuit against Montana, arguing that the state’s fossil fuel-friendly policies violated their constitutional right to a clean and healthful environment. The court agreed, finding the state’s actions unconstitutional and concluding that climate change was negatively impacting the plaintiffs — making it the first youth-led climate case to go to trial in the U.S. and win.
Despite challenges from the state, in December 2024 the Montana’s Supreme Court upheld the landmark climate ruling that said the state was violating residents’ constitutional right to a clean environment by permitting oil, gas and coal projects without regard for global warming. While the decision didn’t force Montana to draw down its carbon emissions directly, it showed the power of litigation in forcing climate considerations into government decision making.
IN CANADA: Mathur v. Ontario
In 2018, the Ontario government rolled back the province’s climate targets. Seven brave young Ontarians (the youngest who were just twelve years old at the time) decided to do something about it. In 2019, these seven youth made Canadian legal history when they took their provincial government to court for slashing its climate targets and putting their generation’s future at risk.
After a landmark decision from the Ontario Court of Appeal in 2024, the Mathur case is heading back to Court in December 2025, where the stage is set for a generation-defining hearing that could define whether Canadian governments have a constitutional duty to address climate change. In the coming months we’ll find out whether Canadian courts will join judges from around the world in holding climate-delaying politicians to task for risking the future.
Leading voices in the fight for climate justice
Young people are reshaping the climate fight — and they’re using the courts to do it.
Where governments have failed, youth-led climate lawsuits are holding policymakers’ feet to the fire and getting results. These climate cases are setting legal precedent, encouraging more ambitious climate targets, holding governments accountable for decades of climate inaction.
In a moment of global chaos and instability, these young leaders are showing the world that the rule of law matters, science matters, and justice matters.
Most importantly, they are showing us that there is still reason to hope.
Show your support: Help spotlight bold youth fighting for climate justice
Submit a letter to the editor that celebrates the seriously bold, brave, and visionary youth activists behind the landmark Charter challenge Mathur et. al. v. Ontario.
Take five minutes to personalize your pre-written opinion piece, submit it to your local news outlet, and cross your fingers it gets published. Every submission sends a message to news editors — and to political decision-makers, should the letter be published — that taking young people seriously means taking their futures seriously.
And taking their futures seriously means taking action on climate now — without waiting for the courts to force them to.