Ontario’s top court declined on Wednesday to reopen its ruling in a landmark challenge of the provincial government’s climate plan, confirming the youth-led case should be sent back to a lower court. The young activists had asked the Court of Appeal for Ontario to reopen the appeal, arguing Premier Doug Ford’s government ‘gutted’ a 2018 climate law last year in a bid to avoid accountability on whether its weakened emissions target violated the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Wednesday’s ruling rejected the request but leaves open the possibility that the case could continue despite the partial repeal of the law, leaving it with the Superior Court to decide. Almost seven years after it was launched, the Charter challenge remains unresolved. After Wednesday’s ruling, lawyers for the group said they would work to get the case heard in the lower court again as soon as possible. “While wildfire smoke fills our skies and extreme heat reshapes our children’s summers, so many Canadians are disillusioned by our governments’ backtracking on climate action,” said lawyer Julia Croome with environmental law charity Ecojustice. “This case, as it has shown time and again, can set a historic precedent and force government accountability. And that’s exactly what we will be pushing for as we prepare to head back to court in the months ahead.” Province scrapped key sections of law before new hearing The landmark case was the first in Canada to consider, in a full trial, whether a government’s climate-change approach has the potential to violate the Charter. The activists argued Ontario’s weakened 2018 target contributed to the threat climate change poses to the lives and security of Ontarians and future generations. In a 2023 ruling, the Superior Court agreed that the gap between how much emissions needed to be cut globally and what the provincial plan called for was “large, unexplained and without an apparent scientific basis.” But the justice nonetheless dismissed the challenge, finding the activists were trying to impose a constitutional obligation to fight climate change on the province. The following year, the case was revived when an appeal court ordered a new hearing in the lower court, ruling that Ontario had voluntarily assumed an obligation to fight climate change in the 2018 law. Shortly before that new hearing was set to take place last year, the province scrapped key sections of the law requiring it to set a target and regularly update its climate plan. At the time, the premier’s office suggested economic uncertainty and U.S. tariffs were part of the reason for the change. The young activists argued it was an 11th-hour bid to shut down the case and evade accountability. The move also came weeks after an auditor general’s report found the province was set to miss its target by an even wider margin than it had previously reported and it had not released a new update to its climate plan since 2021. Activists argue weaker target adds 30 megatonnes annually Shortly after taking power in 2018, Ford’s government scrapped the province’s cap-and-trade system, an industrial carbon pricing scheme, and downwardly revised its emissions target. The Progressive Conservatives’ goal to reach emissions 30 per cent below 2005 levels by 2030 replaced the Liberal-era target of 37 per cent below 1990 levels. The young activists brought evidence suggesting the revised target could add 30 more megatonnes of CO2 emissions annually, or the equivalent of about seven million more gas-powered cars on the road each year from 2018 to 2030. Case heads back to Superior Court after seven-year battle The case is one of a number of similar lawsuits seeking to hold governments to account on climate change. A group of climate advocates, including some involved in the Ontario case, launched a lawsuit in June arguing the federal government’s rollback of climate policies and support for expanded oil and gas production leaves Ottawa with no credible plan to meet its legally binding 2030 targets. In October, a federal court in Vancouver is expected to hear a separate youth-led Charter challenge of federal government’s climate plan. This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 5, 2026. Jordan Omstead, The Canadian Press
