Canada's environment minister juggles global nature pledges and domestic development bill at UN summit

Canada’s environment and climate change minister, Julie Dabrusin, is traveling to the United Nations biodiversity conference in Armenia to showcase the country’s leadership on nature protection, citing recent conservation deals that cover areas larger than Toronto and even the size of Japan. The trip coincides with mounting criticism from Greenpeace Canada, which says the government’s Building Canada Strong Act (Bill C-39) undermines those commitments by fast-tracking pipelines, power lines and mines.

Dabrusin responded that the bill merely reforms how projects are evaluated and does not weaken existing environmental safeguards. She also noted that some proposed amendments were dropped after public pushback. The conference comes as UN Secretary-General António Guterres highlighted the slow global progress toward the Kunming-Montreal target of protecting 30 % of land and sea by 2030. Canada co-hosted the 2022 summit and now seeks to balance its international pledges with domestic development pressures.