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

ABSTRACT

Canada 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.

RÉSUMÉ

Depuis 1968, le Canada a joué un rôle de leader majeur dans la gouvernance environnementale mondiale à des périodes précises, mais a aussi fréquemment perdu de sa visibilité ou changé de direction, alors que la compétition économique restait le pilier central de la politique étrangère canadienne. Le leadership canadien sur le changement climatique et d’autres questions d’ordre environnemental s’est avéré incohérent, tiraillé qu’il était entre une extraction maximale des ressources et un programme vert défendu pour la première fois dans les années 70. Trois dimensions contextuelles internationales ont déterminé la politique étrangère canadienne sur les questions environnementales depuis la première élection du Premier ministre libéral Pierre Trudeau, en 1968. En retour, chacune d’elles continue d’être déterminée par le contexte politique domestique, comprenant notamment le parti au pouvoir, les relations fédérales-provinciales et la conjoncture économique. Ces dimensions contextuelles comprennent la relation américano-canadienne (ou, plus largement, la dimension continentale) ; le contexte éco-politique mondial, principalement défini par le multilatéralisme environnemental et la collaboration entre le Canada et les Nations-Unies ; et l’émergence du changement climatique en tant que question environnementale prédominante dans la période qui a suivi 1992. Cet article traite de ces trois dimensions et offre un point de vue panoramique sur la contribution du Canada à la gouvernance environnementale mondiale, à l’âge de la mondialisation.

KEYWORDS:

• Environmental diplomacy
• international environmental law
• UNCED
• Canada–United States relations
• climate change

Acknowledgements

Special thanks to the editors of this special edition and to Dan Macfarlane for insightful suggestions, and Global Affairs Canada for funding.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes on contributor

Peter Stoett is Dean of Social Science and Humanities at the University of Ontario Institute of Technology, Oshawa, and was previously the Director of the Loyola Sustainability Research Centre at Concorida University, Montreal.

Notes

1 Ontario Lieutenant General Elizabeth Dowdeswell was another key player in Canadian environmental multilateralism: she was assistant deputy minister at Environment Canada with responsibility for the Atmospheric Environment Service negotiations for the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), and, in 1992, was unanimously elected to lead the UNEP in Nairobi, serving there until 1998 with the rank of under-secretary-general. She went on to serve as the founding president and chief executive officer of the Nuclear Waste Management Organization.