Page 39 - PC Winter 2023-24

Connection
JUSTICE
Young People Using the Courts Seeking Climate Justice
presbyterian.ca
WINTER 2023
PRESBYTERIAN
39
By Katharine Sisk, Justice Ministries
Across Canada, and the world, people face the terrible impacts of ecological destruction and the cli- mate crisis. Specific impacts vary widely by season and region. For- est fires, smoke, floods, droughts and severe storms are some of the impacts that many people across Canada have recently faced, and are the kind of environ- mental disasters that will only be- come more severe and deadly as global temperatures continue to increase. Decades of global poli- cy negotiations have failed to cre- ate a binding agreement to curb the dangerous rise in greenhouse gas emissions driving the crisis. The physical, psychological and spiritual impact of the crisis can be overwhelming. What can we do? How can we respond?
Many groups facing injustice and seeking to change the poli- cies of their governments have done so through the courts, when other pathways to change have failed. Following that tradi-
tion, some young people who care deeply about the current and future health of Earth’s ecosys- tems, and who are unsatisfied with the state of climate policy in their region, have launched legal challenges to affect change— and some interesting results are emerging.
This past summer (2023), 16 young people and their legal rep- resentatives in Montana success- fully argued (Held v. Montana) that a state law forbidding the state and its agents from considering the impacts of green gas emis- sions or climate change in their environmental reviews for fossil fuel project development violated their state constitutional rights to “a clean and healthful environ- ment.” With this decision, in the future, Montana must consider potential climate impacts when deciding on fossil fuel projects. While Montana’s office of the at- torney general has said it will ap- peal, the ruling itself is the first of its kind in the United States.
Another case is emerging in Ontario, where seven young peo-
ple are plaintiffs in a case arguing that a 2018 law which lowered Ontario’s greenhouse gas emis- sions reduction target “inad- equately addressed the dangers posed by climate change, thereby infringing upon the rights of On- tario youth and future genera- tions.”* Without over-simplifying complex legal cases unfolding in very different legal landscapes, what is abundantly clear is that there are young people who be- lieve they have a right to live in a world with a healthy and sustain- able future, and who are willing to fight for that future.
We must not overlook the in- tergenerational and future-gener- ational consequences of the cli- mate crisis. Living Faith reminds us that we must act in a way that uses power and resources responsibly, and for the com- mon good. As it says in section 2.4, “Though life is a gift from God, human life depends on the created world. Our care for the world must reflect God’s care. We are not owners, but stewards of God’s good earth. Concerned
with the well-being of all of life we welcome the truths and insights of all human skill and science... Our stewardship calls us to ex- plore ways of love and justice in respecting God’s creation and in seeking its responsible use for the common good.” Our collec- tive care for the earth has not met that bar, and creation is suffering.
What can we do?
• Learn more about what the church has said and done regarding the climate crisis; explore the Social Action Hub’s ecological justice page, presbyterian.ca/ecological- justice.
• Talk to your church about the need for climate justice. For the Love of Creation has resources (“Faithful Climate Conversations”) to help guide different kinds of conversa- tions, beginning with those who have never talked about climate change in a group setting before, to an action
discernment process to assist those who are already part of a group that has a collec- tive commitment to working for climate justice together (for theloveofcreation.ca/ resources).
• Become involved in the 2024 climate justice campaign Give it up for the Earth, led by Citizens for Public Justice (cpj.ca) with For the Love of Creation. Campaign materi- als will be ready in January. Contact Justice Ministries for more information (justice@ presbyterian.ca).
• Connect with youth-led cli- mate justice initiatives and ask how you can support them.
* Jennifer Fairfax, Ankita Gupta, Joaquin Arias, “First justiciable climate claim in Ontario – Ma- thur v. Ontario,” June 5, 2023,
at osler.com/en/resources/ regulations/2023/first-justiciable- climate-claim-in-ontario-mathur- v-ontario
This Christmas,
give a gift that makes
a difference
presbyterian.ca/giftsofchange