350 Canada

To Prime Minister Mark Carney and the Government of Canada:

As this year’s G7 presidency holders, we face a generational opportunity and responsibility to lead boldly on climate justice, economic transformation, and international solidarity.

In your mandate letter to Cabinet, you committed to building a strong economy that works for everyone, advancing reconciliation, fighting climate change, transforming our global relationships, and using the government to catalyze investment. Now is the moment to act on those words by ensuring Canada does its fair share to confront the climate crisis globally, not just domestically.

Canada is one of the world’s richest and most polluting nations. We have reaped the benefits of an extractive economy while Global South countries who are least responsible for the crisis face rising debt, deepening poverty, and climate devastation. As a country committed to fairness and global leadership, we must rise to this challenge with vision and courage. 

We urge your government to make full use of the G7 presidency to take transformative steps toward global climate justice. We call on you to: 

1. Triple Canada’s climate finance to support the Global South with grants, not loans.

We know that Canada’s current fair share of climate mitigation alone is at least an average of $58 billion annually by 2035. We’re far from that, and although our current system sets us up to fail in delivering this large amount through public finance alone, Canada must bump up our ambition significantly. As a good-faith measure towards meeting this goal, Canada should triple our current climate finance pledge while prioritizing adaptation and loss and damage. And we must deliver this contribution in grant-based finance, not conditional investments or for-profit loans. We owe the Global South support, not more debt.

2. Cancel unjust Global South debt and free billions for climate solutions.

You’ve called for transforming the global economy. Canceling unjust and unsustainable debt is a clear and powerful way to do that. Canada should cancel debts owed by low-income countries and use its G7 leadership to champion a binding UN debt resolution framework, ensuring countries can invest in their people and climate resilience, not foreign creditors.

3. Make big polluters and the ultra-rich pay their fair share. 

Building a fair economy means ensuring those who profited most from pollution contribute to the transition. Internationally, this means that Canada must impose international levies on undertaxed sectors like shipping, aviation, and the ultra-wealthy. Domestically, it means introducing a 15% windfall profits tax on fossil fuel giants. These revenues can help fund global solutions while reducing inequality, which is aligned with your vision for a sustainable, secure economy.

4. End trade rules that undermine climate action. 

Global trade cannot be a shield for corporate impunity. As part of redefining Canada’s commercial relationships, Canada should dismantle Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) mechanisms in our trade agreements and introduce a transparent, democratic, and climate-aligned trade policy. This would demonstrate leadership in building a 21st-century global economy that puts people and the planet first.

This moment demands more than incrementalism. It requires a government willing to match its rhetoric with bold, international action. Canada’s G7 presidency is a test of our values and a chance to lead the world toward a fairer, safer future.

We call on you to govern with justice, courage, and global responsibility. Canada must do its fair share for the climate, for the world, and for generations to come.