“I was really disappointed by Canada’s position,” said David Boyd, an associate professor with the University of British Columbia and former UN Special Rapporteur on human rights and the environment. “I mean Canada lined up with Saudi Arabia, Russia, the United States — basically these major emitters are making the argument that the only legal obligations they have are the obligations set forth in [those agreements].”

“By saying that the only things that apply are the Paris Agreement and the 1992 framework convention, Canada went on to reject the principles of prevention, international generational equity, reject the principle of polluter pays, [and] reject the right to a healthy environment,” he said. “[It’s] saying none of these principles are part of customary international law, so they just don’t apply.”

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In an interview with Canada’s National Observer last year at the UN climate summit in Dubai, Regenvanu said increasingly petrostates, like Canada, are viewed as “rogue states.”

“The message from the Pacific small island developing states … is that Canada has to immediately stop any further expansion of fossil fuel production,” he said at the time. “It has to do that now if it’s going to be faithful to the science. We all know that.”

A study from Oil Change International published last year found Canada is on track to be the second-largest fossil fuel expander, behind only the U.S., by 2050. On its own, Canada’s planned fossil fuel expansion represents 10 per cent of the world’s expansion plans, creating the equivalent greenhouse gas emissions of 117 coal plants run for decades.