Environmental Taxation

Victor Geana

1. Introduction

Climate change presents an unprecedented governance challenge - requiring coordinated action across jurisdictions, sectors, and legal systems. In federal states, this challenge is heightened by constitutional constraints on the division of authority between national and subnational governments.

S. 408Canada’s carbon pricing framework offers a revealing case study in the constitutional governance of climate policy within a federal system. While driven by global climate imperatives, its implementation has raised fundamental legal questions under the Constitution Act, 1867 (the “Canadian Constitution” or the “Constitution”) - particularly regarding the scope of federal power under the “peace, order, and good government” clause.

Although Canada ratified the Paris Agreement under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (the “Paris Agreement”) and committed to net-zero emissions by 2050, it remains one of the world’s largest fossil fuel producers. Against this backdrop, federal efforts to establish a unified national carbon pricing system through the Greenhouse Gas Pollution Pricing Act (the “GGPPA” or the “Act”) have met constitutional resistance and...