Analyzing Canadian Climate Policy for Indigenous Climate Justice

Abstract

The 2030 Emissions Reduction Plan (ERP) is Canada’s most recent climate policy framework, presenting itself as an effective strategy to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, protect the environment, and address social inequities. However, Canadian climate policies have historically fallen short in incorporating Indigenous climate justice. Though the ERP claims to align with reconciliation goals, it has not been comprehensively evaluated for Indigenous climate justice to date. This thesis addresses this gap by assessing whether the ERP improves over previous climate policies and how future policies can further improve. Using a comprehensive policy analysis framework, this study evaluates the ERP alongside earlier with respect to Indigenous climate justice. The analysis reveals that while the ERP demonstrates substantial improvement over the previous policies, significant shortcomings remain. Based on these findings, it is recommended that future climate policies provide greater opportunity for Indigenous input, express Indigenous climate justice more thoroughly, and properly incorporate principles of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.