Legal Hurdles and Pathways: The Evolution (Progress?) of Climate Change Adjudication in Canada

Citizens, civil society, and environmental organisations throughout the world are increasingly turning to courts to find solutions to the perils of climate change. In July 2023, the United Nations Environment Programme (“UNEP”) reported that as of November 2022, there were 2,180 climate change litigation cases underway throughout the world, that this number is 2.5 times higher than it was five years ago, and that the number of jurisdictions involved has grown from 24 in 2017, to 39 in 2020, to 65 in 2023. The authors of this report describe climate litigation as “a frontier solution to change the dynamics of what the UN Secretary-General has described as ‘the fight of our lives.’” In both its 2020 and its 2023 reports, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (“IPCC”) concludes that “litigation is central to efforts to compel governments and corporate actors to undertake more ambitious climate change mitigation and adaptation goals".