OTTAWA — As the news media seems more absorbed in Trump’s Epstein woes, the climate crisis continues apace while key and significant international legal developments are ignored.
On July 3, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights ruled that the climate emergency is a human rights issue. On July 23 the International Court of Justice issued a landmark advisory opinion that nation states may face penalties and be held legally accountable for failing to take decisive action to protect populations and ecosystems from global warming.
“These two decisions send a clear message: ‘Polluting nations may well be held to account, facing stiff financial penalties for failure to act to shut down reliance on fossil fuels,’” noted Green Party leader Elizabeth May. “This means that Canada’s leaders had better take note, as global legal experts agree: the days of climate impunity are over.”
There has been no response at all from Canada, nothing on the PMO website, and no statement from the Hon. Julie Dabrusin, Minister of Environment and Climate Change. This, despite a clear call for action hand-delivered to the minister from leading Canadian NGOs.
Ecojustice, Breast Cancer Action Quebec, Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment, Canadian Environmental Law Association, the David Suzuki Foundation, and Environmental Defence have called on the Minister to protect the right to a healthy environment based on Canada’s international legal obligations.
“Canada lives in a glass house—our climate hypocrisy is transparent,” stated Ms. May. “Canada has taken on legally binding obligations to meet our Paris target by 2030, and we are nowhere near it. The recent July 2025 international rulings strengthen our legal duty to act to save lives in Canada and around the world. But all we hear from government is ‘build baby build.’”
Greens demand that the Carney government respond substantively to the accelerating risk.
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For more information or to arrange an interview:
Laurie MacMillan
Communications Director
Green Party of Canada