In Sierra Club of British Columbia Foundation v. British Columbia (Minister of Environment and Climate Change Strategy), 2023 BCSC 74 [Sierra Club], earlier this year, the British Columbia Supreme Court found that the courts have the power to enforce reporting requirements mandated in British Columbia's climate change legislation on the provincial government. This decision incrementally opens the door for courts to hold governments accountable, where across Canada, at the federal and provincial levels, governments are grappling with their obligations under newly enacted requirements under climate change legislation. Representing a significant step in the development of public interest climate change litigation in Canada, where previously, the Federal Court ruled that charter claims brought on the basis of a government's failure to stringently regulate emissions were non-justiciable and therefore could not be advanced in the courts.1
Sierra Club delineates justiciability of climate change accountability and reporting obligations
In 2018, BC passed amendments and renamed its climate change statute from the Greenhouse Gas Reductions Targets Act to the Climate Change Accountability Act (the "Act"). In this change, the legislature introduced a stronger transparency and...
