On November 26, 2018, the environmental nonprofit organization Environment Jeunesse (ENJEU) was inspired by the Juliana v. United States plaintiffs to bring a class action lawsuit in the Superior Court of Québec on behalf of all Québec citizens aged 35 and younger. In this case, the plaintiffs seek both a declaratory judgment and punitive damages for the Canadian government’s failure to uphold its duty to protect the fundamental rights of young people as guaranteed in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms and in the Québec Charter of Rights and Freedoms. More specifically, the plaintiffs allege that the government set greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reduction targets that it knew to be harmful to human life and health and that the government failed to put in place an adequate climate action plan to even achieve those unsatisfactory targets. Although the court dismissed the case for failure to appropriately institute a class action, the plaintiffs appealed this decision on August 16, 2019 and a decision from the Québec Court of Appeals is currently pending. 

This case is similar to Juliana in that it challenges both government actions and inactions as violative of plaintiffs’ fundamental rights. On the other hand, it is dissimilar to Juliana, in that it is a class action lawsuit and it seeks GHG emission reductions commensurate with keeping warming below 1.5°C, a level of warming that, if reached, would be catastrophic for young people and the planet.