Community Activator Series: Christie McLeod

Christie is in her fourth and final year of her Juris Doctor/Masters in Environmental Studies program at Osgoode Hall Law School; York University, among other related positions and activities. Read more about Christie here.

What does climate action look like to you?

Christie: There are many ways to take climate action, and Autumn Peltier, Greta Thunberg and other activists have demonstrated that one person’s actions can have an immense ripple effect. I am most interested in government advocacy, particularly concerning corporate accountability. It’s astounding that a few corporations are largely responsible for the majority of the emissions in our atmosphere, and that they continue to profit from unabated polluting. I advocate for regulating oil and gas companies and for challenging our governments to increase climate commitments. 

Actions should utilize a climate justice lens to consider who is bearing the brunt of impacts and whether they’re represented at decision-making tables. FutureXChange contextualizes this lens in a Canadian context, allowing me to consider more holistic ideas, actions, and solutions in my advocacy efforts.

Christie’s Project

Christie: Canada’s 2030 target, set by Stephen Harper in 2015, only calls for a modest 30% reduction below Canada’s 2005 emissions levels — that’s about 27% below 2017 levels. Such incremental reductions fall markedly short of the level of ambition called for by climate scientists. In 2018, the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change called for global emissions to be reduced by 2030 to 45% below 2010 levels. Last fall, the UN Environment Programme stated that global emissions need to decrease by 7.6% each year this decade. To limit warming to 1.5°C, the highest-emitting states (which includes Canada) must immediately undertake sweeping emissions reductions efforts.

Galvanized by the urgency and scale of effort required to address this climate emergency, I decided to write an open letter and invited my peers at Osgoode Hall Law School to join my call for action, as well as law students and faculty members from across the country. In a single week, over 450 students and faculty members from nearly every law school in Canada signed onto this letter, which was sent to Prime Minister Trudeau and Minister Wilkinson.

The letter urges the Federal Government to adopt 2030 and 2050 emissions reduction targets that comply with efforts to limit global warming to 1.5°C, and to legislate these targets alongside interim five-year targets to guide reduction efforts. The letter called for Trudeau to commit to legislating these targets in the Speech from the Throne, as well as formalize these commitments by updating Canada’s Nationally Determined Contributions. None of these actions were implemented, however I was able to hand a physical copy of the letter to Minister Wilkinson. 

Many of the signatories provided compelling explanations as to why they felt that Canada needs stronger emissions reduction targets. I created a gallery to showcase some of their insights, which can be found here. 

What have been your biggest takeaways from the FXC program so far? 

Christie: Sometimes in Canada, there is this mindset that the impacts of climate change are felt “elsewhere” or will occur in the distant future. Spending time up in Inuvik and learning more about the Gwich’in provided concrete examples of current climate impacts in Canada to help dispel these myths. 

Changing weather patterns, differing seasonal lengths, altered wildlife habitat areas - all of these observations are housed within Gwich’in Traditional Knowledge and illustrate the effects of climate change that are happening today. One of my FutureXChange highlights was discussing the present relationship between climate policy and Traditional Knowledge and brainstorming how the two could be better integrated.

What would you like to share about your experience running your community engagement project?

Christie: While writing my Master’s Major Research Paper this past fall, I was immersed in the latest climate science as well as Canada’s climate policies and (in)action. Since the creation of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change in 1992, climate scientists have increasingly called for states to adopt stronger commitments. Meanwhile, Canada’s unambitious and unmet reduction targets have been pushed further and further into the future. I entered into the FutureXChange program at a time of disheartenment and frustration. FXC gave me the prompt I needed to channel these feelings into action. 

Despite gathering nearly 500 signatories from law students and faculty members across the country, I did not receive a response from Prime Minister Trudeau or Minister Wilkinson. I recently attended a conference that Minister Wilkinson spoke at, where I was able to present him with a physical copy of the letter, and briefly discuss its contents. After discussing it, he replied that Canada was committed to setting a 2050 net-zero target. I thanked him for that commitment, and noted that we do not have the luxury to slowly wind down emissions over the next thirty years, and that the IPCC is calling for global emissions to be nearly slashed in half (below 2010 levels) over the next decade. His response was that things take time and that ten years is not long enough to make such changes. 

It was disheartening to hear this, given that his own speech ten minutes prior had expressed concerns for his daughters’ futures, if Canada fails to take bold climate action. I did not have a chance to remind him, but of course it is only because Canada (and other high-emitting states) have failed to take adequate action over the last 30 years that we are now being asked to make such drastic changes.

My brief interaction with Minister Wilkinson illustrates why it is so important to challenge politicians to implement the values and commitments they espouse in their speeches and in the media, and to hold them accountable when they fail to do so.