Substantive but inconsistent: Canada’s role in global environmental governance, 1968–2017

Abstract

ABSTRACTCanada has played a key leadership role in global environmental governance during specific periods since 1968, but has frequently faded from view or reversed direction as economic competiveness remained the central pillar of Canadian foreign policy. Canadian leadership on climate change and other environmental issues has proven inconsistent, torn between pressures for maximal resource extraction and the green agenda first advanced in the 1970s. Three international contextual dimensions have shaped Canadian foreign policy on environmental issues since Liberal Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau was first elected in 1968. Each of these in turn is further shaped by the domestic policy context, including the party in power, federal–provincial relations, and the state of the economy. The contextual dimensions include the Canadian–American relationship (or, more broadly, the continental dimension); the global ecopolitical context defined primarily by environmental multilateralism and Canada–United Nations collaboration; and the advent of climate change as the predominant environmental issue in the post-1992 period. This paper discusses these three dimensions and offers a panoramic viewpoint on Canada’s contribution to global environmental governance in the age of globalization.