Nature.com informs that a group of children and young adults filed a lawsuit on 25 October alleging that the Canadian government has violated their constitutional rights by promoting and enabling fossil-fuel development in spite of acknowledged risks from global warming.
Fifteen people aged between 10 and 19 filed the lawsuit in federal court, arguing that climate change will impinge on their right to “life, liberty and security”.
Ira Reinhart-Smith, a 15-year-old plaintiff from Caledonia, Canada, says that he got involved with climate activism last year. He mentioned that the lawsuit was helping him express his anger upon the fact that the coming generations would be exposed to things that the world had never been exposed to before.
The lawsuit is the latest in a series of legal challenges aiming to force governments around the world to act on climate change.