Canada is facing a “make-or-break” moment to regulate its oil and gas industry, several global environmental groups say.

More than 250 environmental organizations urged Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to prioritize the matter as MPs returned to Ottawa on Monday.

“Right now, Canada has a make-or-break moment to cap the rising oil and gas emissions that fuel devastating Climate impacts like wildfires. The international community is watching closely: Canada must lead with a strong, ambitious cap that will rein in its biggest polluters,” states an open letter sent to Trudeau on Monday.

“Canada cannot claim to be a climate leader unless it tackles its emissions problem.”

Environmental groups are urging the minority Liberal government to fulfil a promise made last November, when Minister of Environment and Climate Change Steven Guilbeault said Canada would have a cap on oil and gas emissions by the end of 2023.

Climate Action Network Canada says the timeline has been pushed back, in large part due to Alberta Premier Daniel Smith and the lobbying efforts of the oil and gas industry.

The organizations, consisting of environmental, labour, health and faith groups, said Trudeau must take action as the leader of a major economy.

“As a major oil and gas exporter, Canada must use every tool in its toolkit to align itself with the global energy transition and immediately end the expansion of fossil fuel production and infrastructure,” the groups said.

Tessa Khan, executive director of Uplift UK, said Trudeau must “stand up” to the oil and gas industry.

“Canada claims to be a climate leader, yet it is part of the tiny club of countries that continues to pour more fuel on the fire. Climate action means stopping new oil and gas drilling now, today,” she said.

The letter comes at the end of a record-breaking summer for wildfires in Canada. A total of 17.3 million hectares of land have burned across Canada as of mid-September. This is significantly higher than the 10-year average of 2.7 million hectares, and 642 per cent higher than the normal amount.

A 2023 report from the Union of Concerned Scientists said that since 1986, 37 per cent of the area burned in the Western United States and southwestern Canada can be attributed to heat-trapping emissions traced to the world’s 88 largest fossil fuel producers and cement manufacturers.

Sanjay Vashist, director of Climate Action Network South Asia, said: “Wildfires in Canada are a testimony to what the future holds for us; climate impacts are dismantling all the social development countries have made.”

“We cannot get climate change under control without oil and gas companies doing their fair share,” said Caroline Brouillette, executive director of Climate Action Network Canada.

“It’s been two years since the cap was promised. After a summer of brutal climate impacts, with the eyes of the world on Canada, and popular support for the emissions cap across the country, what will it take for Prime Minister Trudeau to finally follow through?”

Climate demonstrations took place over the weekend in 50 cities across Canada. The marches across Canada were part of simultaneous global protests planned for Sept. 15-17, which were timed to coincide with the upcoming UN General Assembly session in New York on Monday and the Climate Ambition Summit on Wednesday.

The Global Fight to End Fossil Fuels, the organization behind the global marches, has six core demands.

They want no new fossil fuels projects; a “rapid, just, and equitable phase out” of existing fossil fuel infrastructure; new commitments for international cooperation on renewable energy; an end to “greenwashing”; more action on holding polluters responsible for the environmental damage they’ve caused; and an end to fossil fuel participation in climate talks or funding for politicians.

According to a report published last week by Oil Change International, a climate-change research and advocacy organization, Canada is one of five “planet wrecker” countries among those with advanced economies, sometimes called the “global north.”

“Five global north countries with the greatest economic means to rapidly phase out production are responsible for a majority (51 per cent) of planned expansion from new oil and gas fields through 2050: the United States, Canada, Australia, Norway, and the United Kingdom,” the report said.

The report said only 20 countries will be responsible for nearly 90 per cent of CO2 pollution from the development of new oil and gas fields and fracking wells between 2023 and 2050.

The United States, which the report referred to as “planet wrecker-in-chief,” accounts for one-third of planned global oil and gas expansion through 2050.

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