paris 2015: canada, where are your climate promises?

 paris 2015: canada, where are your climate promises?

Eleven years of promises. Eleven years of political speeches. And how much has really changed?

I remember watching the Paris climate negotiations in December 2015. I remember Elizabeth May speaking up, challenging politicians and pushing for meaningful climate action. I remember thinking that perhaps we were finally turning a corner.

I also remember Catherine McKenna, Canada's Environment and Climate Change Minister at the time. I thought she was going to be a strong voice for the environment.

I wanted to believe them.

The Paris Agreement was supposed to represent a turning point. World leaders gathered, made commitments and told us that limiting global warming to 1.5°C was essential to protecting our future.

Canada signed on. We celebrated the agreement. We talked about leadership, sustainability and responsibility to future generations.

But then we need to look at what happened back home.

In September 2016, less than a year after Paris, the Trudeau government approved the $11-billion Pacific NorthWest LNG project in British Columbia.

Who announced that approval?

Environment Minister Catherine McKenna, alongside Natural Resources Minister Jim Carr and Fisheries Minister Dominic LeBlanc.

And who welcomed it?

Then BC Premier Christy Clark, whose government had been aggressively promoting an LNG industry in British Columbia.

There they were, together, celebrating a major fossil fuel development while Canada was also celebrating its international climate commitments.

The project was eventually abandoned in 2017, but the federal government's decision to approve it remains part of our climate record.

This is the contradiction that deserves attention.

How can governments tell the world that we must urgently reduce greenhouse gas emissions while continuing to approve projects designed to expand fossil fuel production and exports?

How can we talk about protecting future generations while making decisions that increase the environmental burden they will inherit?

And how many times are Canadians expected to applaud another announcement, another climate plan, another target and another international commitment?

Let's look at the numbers.

According to Environment and Climate Change Canada's latest emissions indicators:

• In 2024, oil and gas accounted for 30% of Canada's total greenhouse gas emissions.
• The sector produced 208 million tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions.
• Oil and gas emissions were 76% higher than in 1990.
• Between 2023 and 2024, emissions from the sector increased another 1.8%.

These are not figures from an environmental activist's opinion piece. They are from the Canadian government's own reporting.

And yet we continue to hear about Canada's climate leadership.

Leadership isn't a speech. It isn't a photograph at an international conference. It isn't signing an agreement and congratulating ourselves.

Leadership means making difficult decisions, following through and accepting responsibility when commitments aren't met.

I don't believe every politician, scientist, environmentalist or country has failed. There are people who have fought tirelessly for environmental protection, often against considerable political and economic pressure.

But the distance between political promises and actual results is becoming increasingly difficult to ignore.

And I haven't forgotten the Indigenous communities who have had to defend their territories, waters, fisheries and traditional ways of life against industrial development. Their voices should never be treated as an obstacle to economic progress.

The environment is not an inconvenience to be managed around a business opportunity.

It is the foundation of everything.

eleven years later, another conference

Now we are being invited to tune in to another United Nations sustainability programme at COP31.

There will be discussions about transformation, sustainable development, partnerships and solutions.

Fine. Have the discussions.

But I want to know what happens after everyone leaves the conference.

Who is measuring the results? Who is reporting the failures? Who is holding governments accountable?

And what happened to the promises made in Paris?

I'm not interested in another collection of beautiful words about a sustainable future if the decisions being made today continue to undermine it.

We cannot keep passing the responsibility to the next generation.

We cannot keep asking ordinary people to change their habits while governments and major industries make decisions with enormous consequences for the planet.

The climate doesn't negotiate. It doesn't attend conferences. It doesn't care about political talking points or election promises.

The consequences are physical, measurable and increasingly visible.

Canada, we signed the Paris Agreement.

Now let's talk about keeping our promises.

Words matter. But actions matter considerably more.

15 young Canadians who filed La Rose v. His Majesty the King in 2019 are finally having their case heard in Federal Court in Vancouver. The trial began October 26, 2026. 

Should environment ministers be held accountable when their governments approve projects that conflict with climate targets?

What responsibility do politicians have to future generations when making decisions about energy and the environment?

Are economic growth and environmental protection being treated as competing priorities when they should be considered together?

Have Indigenous communities been given meaningful decision-making power over projects affecting their traditional territories?

8. What does climate justice mean when today's children will inherit the consequences of decisions made by politicians they never had an opportunity to vote for?

9. Why has it taken seven years for these young Canadians to reach a full trial, and what does that tell us about access to justice?

10. If these young people succeed, could their case change how future Canadian governments are held accountable for protecting the environment and the rights of children?

#YouthVCanada

#LaRoseVCanada

#ClimateJustice

#ChildrensRights

#ClimateAccountability

#ParisAgreement

#IndigenousYouth

#COP31

#FutureGenerations

#ListenToTheChildren