Canada has become a world-leading climate villain

Skepticism of COP29 began even before the negotiations started, with civil society decrying the dissonance of having this international climate gathering hosted by a petrostate for the second consecutive year. Human rights organizations and activists also decried the Armenian ethnic cleansing perpetrated by the Azerbaijan government just last year.

Despite the stream of disappointments flowing from these meetings year after year, many experts and advocates have reiterated that the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC — the U.N. body where the COPs are housed) remains a critical forum for climate action — the only place where developing countries and vulnerable populations have a voice. As Canadian civil society, we must use our own voices to defend multilateral climate action. The only way to do this is to hold Canada strictly accountable at the UNFCCC.

There's no sugarcoating it: Canada is one of the greatest villains in these talks, both historically and currently. For all its constructive and helpful rhetoric on climate, we cannot ignore the fact that the Canadian government has shirked its responsibilities and undermined global climate action. 

The COP29 outcome requires developed countries to provide a meagre $300 billion in finance to support developing countries and their economies against climate disasters. There has been a years-long push for much of that money to come from grant-based public funds rather than loans or market mechanisms. Steven Guilbeault, Canada’s minister of Environment and Climate Change, has ruled out a large public investment in climate finance, instead unveiling a new “blended finance,” market-based initiative at this year’s COP. For many, this is a poor alternative to true ambition. 

In its 30 years of participation in the COP process, Canada’s performance has been bleak, despite a rotating cast of governments representing us at the meetings. Canada pulled out of the world’s first significant climate accord, the Kyoto Protocol, before the end of its first commitment period. Our exit was a significant hack at the knees of the Protocol, and the whole agreement lost its teeth soon after. 

Canada has also consistently supported weaker language in COP texts, and insisted on limiting the scope of issues at the COPs, which would siphon off-key issues like adaptation and trade to be discussed in other forums, undermining the legitimacy and strength of the UNFCCC. We’ve relentlessly pushed back against developing countries’ proposals for greater ambition, shifted the agreed-upon goal posts of which countries should pay for historical emissions, and contributed to the “trust deficit" between developed and developing countries.

Perhaps the greatest failure of Canada at these talks is our consistent backing of the U.S. position — one that has been nothing short of debilitating for international climate cooperation. The latest Climate Change Performance Index ranks Canada a bleak 62nd out of 67 countries.

Globally, we’re seen as one of the weakest countries when it comes to climate action. 

Many climate advocates may balk at this hard truth. We are an altogether polite bunch, preferring nuanced critique to outright condemnation, and wanting to commend the government’s small steps alongside our calls for more ambition. This approach has proved strategic for many years, but in the wake of several COP failures in a row, it’s time to unite against our true common enemy: climate inaction. 

The numbers don’t lie: Most G7 nations decreased their annual emissions since 1990. Canada and the U.S. did not. Though Canada did meet and exceed its commitment toward the previous global finance goal of $100 billion USD — two years late. 

At COP29, Canada joined other wealthy industrialized countries in producing a new financial goal so lacking in ambition that it has drawn scathing criticism from virtually every corner of civil society and most developing countries. Climate Action Network Canada called it a “band-aid on a bullet wound.”

Developed countries owe a "climate debt" to the developing world, and have agreed to pay this debt in the form of climate finance and other support. But for 30 years, the wealthiest nations in the world have pushed back on this obligation through denial, delays, procedural trickery, blatant refusal and the undermining of the equity principles that lie at the heart of the U.N. Convention. 

The leverage of international contributions to actually bend the climate curve is, in many ways, more powerful than domestic action to reduce emissions at home. It wouldn’t be right to compare the two pillars (domestic and international action), but there's no denying that the vast majority of civil society resources, charity funding and advocacy efforts are focused on domestic solutions. However, climate change knows no borders, and even if we succeed in our domestic targets, our global responsibility would be far from fulfilled. 

Recent research outlines the various ways we can pay for our climate debt, including through a progressive wealth tax and other instruments. However, the bottom line is this: we must call on the Canadian government to unequivocally mobilize the public finances required for the global energy transition, in line with our historical responsibility and our obligations to the developing world. This mobilization of finance must also happen in parallel with climate reparations for Indigenous nations in Canada.

In the current political reality, it seems impossible that public funds could ever be committed to international climate action at the scale that’s needed. And of course, a Pierre Poilievre Conservative government would be far weaker on this issue than the current Liberal government, but this is beyond political parties. This shouldn’t stop us, as a civil society, from holding the line, remembering what’s at stake and taking a global view of the climate crisis.

Anjali Appadurai is director of campaigns with the Climate Emergency Unit and the director of the Padma Centre for Climate Justice. The Padma Centre is a hub for diasporic communities across Canada to build power towards climate and economic justice.