China and the US have ratified the world's first comprehensive climate deal, the Paris Agreement. More states are urgently needed for the UN treaty to come into force -- and the world is still waiting on Canada.
Canada signed in April, but the government still hasn't ratified the treaty. This is scandalous!
The fossil fuel industry has been resisting a UN deal on climate change for decades. Our government needs to stand up to industry and put people and planet first.
For the Paris Agreement to come into force, at least 55 countries representing 55% of the world's climate emissions must ratify the deal. Until then it isn't legally binding, and states can continue funding fossil fuels like there's no tomorrow.
The Government of Canada can't argue that it's waiting for major polluters to ratify, now that the world's No. 1 and 2 are on board. The global media are reporting it as a breakthrough, and rightly so. We must get the media to ask why our government is dragging its feet.
If the Paris agreement comes into force this year as hoped, it means the nearly 200 governments party to it will become obliged to meet emissions-cutting pledges made before the deal last December. That's why the fossil fuel industry is lobbying so hard to prevent progress on the Paris Agreement.
SumOfUs members across the globe campaigned tirelessly last year to stop corporations interfering in the UN talks in Paris. The treaty has been at least 20 years in the making, but it will have been for nothing if states like Canada don't ratify it now.
Let's tell the Canadian government to get a move on!
More information
The Globe And Mail. 5 August 2016.