An environmental economist told the Federal Court in Vancouver that Canada’s ability to affect climate change inside its borders is relatively small compared with decisions made by other countries.
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David Anthoff, an environmental economist and a professor at the University of California, Berkeley, testified at Canada’s first youth-led climate trial in the Federal Court in Vancouver.
Anthoff said Canada has a limited ability to affect the climate inside its borders because it is largely determined by the choices of other countries.
He testified that Canada contributes about 1.4 per cent of global emissions, and that this makes Canada’s ability to affect global climate change through its own domestic emissions “relatively small.”
Anthoff also told the court that most of the climate change Canada will experience—whether large or small—will be determined by other countries.
While saying it was not his view that “what Canada does doesn’t matter,” Anthoff said Canada would fare better if it pursued a foreign policy initiative involving several countries that agree to a coordinated effort.
He told the court that, under that approach, there could be “a much bigger lever than just the domestic greenhouse gases within Canada just because the vast majority of this problem is caused by emissions outside of Canada's border.”
The case before the court was brought by 15 youth, who argue that federal legislation violates their constitutional rights by continuing the trajectory of greenhouse gas emissions.
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