Climate Law in Canada

Abstract

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has recently stated that “[w]arming of the climate system is unequivocal” and that “many of the observed changes are unprecedented over decades to millennia.” With its Fifth Assessment Report, the IPCC confirms that human induced changes to the earth’s climate system are likely to pose one of the most significant global policy challenges in the coming years. For more than 20 years, most countries in the world, including Canada, have participated in efforts to create an international legal regime that can address this challenge. The result has been the creation of two main international instruments, the UN’s Framework Convention on Climate Change (FCCC) and its companion Kyoto Protocol. Canada has been a party to both the FCCC and Kyoto Protocol. Although Canada withdrew from the latter in 2012, the country remains a party to the FCCC and is engaged in the process of negotiating a successor instrument to the Kyoto Protocol.