OTTAWA—Seven young people stood before Ontario’s Court of Appeal on Monday with a simple but devastating claim: that the Ford government’s weakening of climate targets violates their Charter rights to life, liberty and security of the person.

They argue that climate change is not some distant threat but a daily erosion of their futures — and that the courts have both the jurisdiction and the responsibility to hold governments accountable for decisions that endanger the next generation.

The province, for its part, disagrees. Ontario’s legal team insists that setting climate policy is a political decision, not a constitutional matter — and that the courts have no business interfering.