CONTENT WARNING: This edition of CRE Explains discusses climate disasters, land pollution, and environmental racism. Please call Hope for Wellness at 1-855-242-3310 if you need support, or visit their website to chat online with a counsellor.
To mark International Mother Earth Day, we’re breaking down what’s going on with the climate crisis in so-called Canada, the federal government’s plans to curb it, and how Indigenous youth and communities are leading in climate justice.
Quick Facts
- While making up about 5% of the world’s population, Indigenous peoples protect about 80% of the world’s biodiversity.
- Some ways the Government of Canada are responding to Indigenous climate justice include implementing Canada’s National Adaptation Strategy, providing climate action funding to Indigenous communities, and advancing Indigenous climate leadership through their climate plan.
- In 2020, the Joint Committee on Climate Action – led by the Assembly of First Nations and the Government of Canada – released their third report, discussing how Indigenous communities are and can be leaders in climate justice.
- Some MPs have tried to push for climate justice and fight systemic racism by introducing legislation like Bill C-230, which would have created a national strategy to redress environmental racism.
- Canada attended the latest COP26 and Glasgow Climate Pact.
- The Assembly of First Nations declared a First Nations Climate Emergency in 2019
- Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami announced their National Inuit Climate Strategy in 2019
- On March 22, 2022, the NDP agreed to support the Liberal government in exchange for working on shared policy priorities, including climate change and reconciliation.
Some Indigenous climate justice leaders we love
