Climate news & insights

With inflation on the rise, Canadians of all ages may want to tune out the latest warning from UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres that “We are on a highway to climate hell with our foot on the accelerator.” The prospect of paying for our pollution as part of the fight against climate change can feel like one more hand in our pocket, reaching for a wallet that is already running on empty.

Finance Minister Peter Bethlenfalvy clearly wasn’t much concerned with generational fairness in his recent Fall Economic statement. His prescriptions for the province at a time of increased economic uncertainty fall well short of following the generational golden rule: to treat other generations as you would want your generation to be treated.

If you want Canada to work fairly for all generations, here are five key take-aways from the Government of Canada’s Fall Economic Statement, released on November 3, 2022.

Climate change features in the platforms of all parties in the federal election, though the breadth and depth of their commitments vary. So how do you know if the actions to which parties are committing will really move us towards the goal of holding climate change to 1.5 degree Celsius, as agreed to by Canada in the Paris Agreement?

Canada’s top court has thrown its support behind the kind of unified climate action younger generations want and need. It’s a good day for intergenerational solidarity. In a 6-3 ruling, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled in support of minimum national standards that require all provinces to curb carbon pollution, including by putting a price on it.

Big news! The federal government has proposed new climate change legislation that’s supposed to help Canada (on balance) ditch carbon emissions by 2050, also called achieving net-zero, by requiring a bunch of smaller targets along the way.

This week’s Supreme Court of Canada review of the federal carbon tax is an important one to watch. At the heart of the top court’s hearing is the question: Is our country ready and able to work together to fight the climate crisis?

Most people agree we need to take serious action to address the climate emergency. Working together is our best, and possibly only, chance of solving it. But Canada is facing a major hurdle in its fight against the climate crisis. One of our most important national climate change policies is being challenged in the Supreme Court by provinces that don’t want to take meaningful action.

While many of us face serious affordability challenges, our organization knows pricing pollution is not the source of that problem. The source is high costs for housing, child care, postsecondary, transit, etc. — especially since young people’s earnings have stagnated over the last four decades.