Canada’s use and export of fossil fuels contributes disproportionately to the costs and damages caused by GHG emissions. Extracting and exporting resources has made the country wealthy. At the same time, countries that have benefited the least from extractive economies are experiencing impacts, like food insecurity and forced migration, first and most. Canada needs to do its fair share to redress both social and ecological harms, contributing to an equitable and just transition globally.  

Here is a version of our budget submission part 6 of 7, with some simple calls to action that you can take added in.

To do its fair share, the ongoing destruction caused by colonialism and extractive capitalism must be fully acknowledged and addressed in climate planning. Not doing so leads to more strategies that perpetuate harm to people and ecosystems. It leaves the biggest, most fundamental causes of the climate crisis unaddressed. It allows, or even encourages, the most polluting corporations and the biggest consumers of resources to continue doing just that - polluting and widening the gap between the wealthy and those who are economically fragile. What’s more, it excludes the input and leadership of communities on the frontlines and others whose ongoing actions and world views further positive change, create and help safeguard a livable future. To pull out a quote from Indigenous Climate Action’s recent must-read report:

Acknowledging the colonial origins and other root causes of social and ecological problems is crucial for developing the appropriate responses and strategies to address these problems. (Cameron (2012)" [1]

The federal government's climate plans maintain commitments to produce oil and gas for export, increasing oil and gas production over the next few decades. They allow for offset programs and "nature-based solutions" that lead to the commodification of nature, violence, displacement and increased inequity for Indigenous Peoples globally. 

Instead, doing Canada's fair share means that all climate-related plans must centre Indigenous rights, decolonization, phase out fossil fuels and make reparations that further social and economic justice. The plans must go beyond references and gestures, to honest, active and deep change implemented at scale. We can not afford to give a free pass to polluting industry while we put social and economic justice on the back-burner yet again.

Quick Facts:

See [2] and [3]

Some Recommendations below! See more in our full budget submission.

International Commitments, NDC Contributions, Paris Agreement, Climate Action Funds

• Make Canada’s fair contribution to International Climate Finance a priority, $6.76 billion in principle purpose finance between 2021-2025. [CCPA AFB]  
• invest as much or more in adaptation as in mitigation. [GBC]
• Ensure international trade serves the greater good by removing investor-state dispute settlement clauses and pursuing a “peace clause” that leaves countries free to facilitate climate goals. [CCPA AFB]
• Apply “buy sustainable” conditions to “all major public procurements of infrastructure, goods, and services.” [CCPA AFB]
• Consider adopting trade sanctions to discourage human rights violations and environmental degradation. [CCPA AFB]
• Sign on to and uphold the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty. [4] 

Take Action! 

See: Amnesty International Action Opportunities

Read: Oxfam's Climate Finance Shadow Report 2020 and Confronting Carbon Inequality

Speak up about Balancing the Books on Climate Finance with Care Canada 

Learn more about fair shares by reading Climate Change and Development’s Climate Finance Policy Brief 

Stay tuned for phase two of Indigenous Climate Action’s Decolonizing Climate Policy in Canada 

References: 

[1] Quote pulled from Decolonizing Climate Policy in Canada Phase 1: Critique of the PCF and the HEHE. The quote is originally from Cameron, E.S. (2012). Securing Indigenous politics: A critique of the vulnerability and adaptation approach to the human dimensions of climate change in the Canadian Arctic. Global Environmental Change, 22(1),103-114. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2011.11.004

[2] December 11, 2020 statement from Dale Marshall of Environmental Defense on the federal government’s new climate action plan

[3] Guy Dauncey’s “26 weeks of Federal Climate Action”, The Practical Utopian (January 5, 2020)

[4]  Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty

[5] Second Graphic from Canada's Fair Share Towards Limiting Global Warming to 1.5°C, Climate Action Network

Sources Referenced for Recommendations: 

“Alternative Federal Budget Recovery Plan,” Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, (July 21, 2020)

Clean Energy Canada, “Submission for the Pre-Budget Consultations in Advance of the 2021 Federal Budget” (2020)

Green Budget Coalition, “Preliminary Recovery Budget Actions for 2020-2021” (2020)