The Office of Religious Congregations for Integral Ecology

National

What is the industrial carbon tax and why is it important?

An industrial carbon pricing system is a market-based policy that puts a direct price on greenhouse gas emissions from industry, creating financial incentives for companies to reduce their carbon footprint. It is one of the most effective ways to reduce emissions by making pollution expensive and by allowing businesses the flexibility to find the most cost-effective way to reduce emissions. By making use of the market, it sends a powerful price signal that encourages companies to invest in cleaner technologies, improve energy efficiency, reduce dependence on fossil fuels, and develop new processes that generate fewer emissions. It also generates revenue that can be reinvested in climate solutions or returned to citizens, making it politically viable.

ORCIE contributed to the government of Canada review of its Output-Based Pricing System (OBPS) regulations by submitting a letter to Minister Julie Dabrusin outlining recommendations to strengthen Canada’s carbon pricing framework. The submission comes at a pivotal moment when Canada’s climate action efforts must address the intertwined crises of climate change, biodiversity loss, and social marginalization. For example, one essential piece of these regulations is the need for increased transparency.

‘The current transparency requirements in the OBPS framework are a challenge for Canadians who want to understand how we are using carbon pricing revenues and whether they benefit the common good. Increasing transparency by including detailed information on provincial systems and comparisons to benchmarks in annual carbon pricing reports will go a long way to helping the public understand the actual emission reductions achieved and how they compare to climate science requirements. This aligns with the Supreme Court’s recognition that climate change constitutes a matter of national concern requiring coordinated action.’

In the letter ORCIE offers feedback and practical measures so that Canada can create a carbon pricing system that drives genuine emissions reductions while building the public trust and political consensus necessary to meet the scale and urgency of the climate crisis.

For more information visit Canadian Climate Institute for their fact sheet How industrial carbon pricing reduces emissions at minimal cost and additional analysis.

A Just Transition: The Global South Churches’ Call for Climate Justice and Participation

Six months ago, three Cardinals from Brazil, Congo and India sent a letter to the United Nations General Assembly letting the world know the Catholic Church will not remain silent in the face of the climate emergency. “We will continue to raise our voice alongside science, civil society, and the most vulnerable, with truth, courage and consistency, until justice is done.” Just over three months ago at COP30 in Brazil (November 2025), the churches of Global South launched an invitation for a historic coalition between actors from the Global North and South to face the crisis in solidarity. Now, as we approach the first international conference on transitioning away from fossil fuels in Santa Marta, Colombia this April, representatives of the episcopal conferences of Europe and Oceania have joined the churches of the Global South for a renewed clarion call for radical action through the manifesto: Towards peace with creation: an urgent call for ‘a just transition beyond fossil fuels’.

The manifesto’s central demand for a treaty to phase out fossil fuels is perhaps the most significant breakthrough in climate justice discourse. While world leaders dither over incremental adjustments and false solutions, the Churches cut through the noise with revolutionary straightforwardness. They understand that climate justice cannot be achieved without challenging the undemocratic power of fossil fuel corporations that are dominating policy, funding disinformation campaigns, and leading governments to prioritize profit over planetary survival.

We live in a time that urgently demands a Fossil Fuel Treaty. The return to policies of “energy dominance,” that is, the aggressive expansion of oil and gas, environmental deregulation, and the use of force to secure resources, continues to fuel conflicts and forms of petro-imperialism.

Democracy, participation and the defense of rights

What makes this demand so powerful is the integral ecology approach – the focus on equity, democracy and human rights that is required in any response to the climate emergency. The bishops recognize that a fossil fuel treaty would be the ultimate democratic tool. If Canada could commit to international cooperation and join allied nations in the Fossil Fuel non-proliferation Treaty, we have a chance at transferring power from oil, gas and coal companies to communities and ensuring that the people most affected by climate change – and especially defenders of the Earth – are protected, active participants in any decision about our future.  This is precisely what a just transition requires: binding commitments to phase out extraction with clear pathways that prioritize frontline communities over corporate profits.

The manifesto’s most important revelation is how to apply the principles of equity and differentiated responsibility for a truly just transition. Rich countries, whose wealth has been built upon the extraction and exploitation of resources, including fossil fuels, bear an ecological and financial debt to the Global South. The manifesto also directly confronts the unjust financial order that perpetuates climate injustice. The bishops declare that “creditor states and multilateral organizations cannot be demanding payments that compromise the fundamental rights and social protections.” This is a radical rebuke to the IMF, World Bank, and wealthy nations that continue to impose austerity measures and debt obligations that force countries to choose between servicing financial debts and providing their citizens with basic needs and protection from climate disasters.

The climate crisis and debt are two sides of the same coin, threatening the future of poor countries.

The principles identified in the document expose the fundamental contradiction of our current system: financial institutions demand repayment while simultaneously profiting from the very fossil fuel projects that create the climate debt. The Global South bishops recognize this hypocrisy and call for a complete restructuring of financial relationships—one that cancels odious climate debts and redirects funds toward adaptation, renewable energy, and community resilience, in line with Canada’s own Turn Debt Into Hope campaign.

The Prophetic Continuum

This manifesto is not an isolated statement but part of a growing, unified voice of moral authority and leadership from the Global South churches. Over the past year, bishops from Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the Caribbean have consistently issued letters, manifestos, and communications that build on each other. From their earlier call for “ecological conversion, transformation and resistance to false solutions” to this latest declaration, they have been the conscience of the climate movement.

However, a striking development in this latest manifesto is the inclusion of the European episcopal conference, representing a significant expansion of this prophetic movement beyond the Global South. Yet conspicuously absent are the voices of North American bishops—particularly from Canada and the United States, whose countries remain among the world’s largest per capita emitters and whose fossil fuel industries continue to expand and extract with vigour despite the climate crisis.

The question must be asked: when will the bishops of Canada join this prophetic movement? Their silence in the face of climate injustice is deafening. The Canadian government continues to approve new fossil fuel projects while communities across Canada are without clean drinking water and facing increasingly severe climate impacts. The moral leadership of the Global South churches and now Europe stands in stark contrast to the silence from North American church leadership.

Hope in Resistance

What makes this moment and this movement so powerful is its tone: it is both fiercely denouncing and profoundly hopeful. The bishops condemn the “throwaway culture” and the fossil fuel industry’s relentless pursuit of profit, but they also offer a vision of transformation rooted in faith, human dignity, solidarity, and justice. They remind us that another world is possible—one that honors creation, protects the vulnerable, and builds genuine democracy from the ground up.

Addressing fossil fuel expansion is not only a political or economic issue, but also a profound moral and spiritual question. Has your community joined the Fossil Fuel non-Proliferation Treaty Initiative? Catholic social teaching calls us to be defenders of life, to uphold justice, and exercise discernment in the face of grave risks to our common home. Let us follow this ethical compass to Santa Marta and beyond, with the courage to demand what is just, the wisdom to know what is right, and the hope to build what is possible.

Time is short, but hope mobilizes us. A world free of fossil fuels, just and at peace, is possible and necessary.

🌍Budget 2025 Does Not Reflect ORCIE’s Focus on Integral Ecology

By Joe Gunn, Board Co-Chair & Treasurer, ORCIE

After the spring 2025 election, Canadians had to wait until November 4 to see the “generational budget” promised by their new federal government. It was then that ORCIE saw proof that environmental justice has been massively downgraded in importance – as well as in planned future action by our leaders.

The federal government wanted to highlight three buzzwords to describe their priorities: Build, Protect, and Empower. But the main takeaways are headlined in a massive $78 billion deficit, sharply increased military spending to immediately total 2% of GDP (moving quickly to 5% of GDP by 2035), and state “investments” and tax reductions to move the private sector economy forward, especially on newly selected PONIs (“Projects of National Interest.”)

How does Budget 2025 measure up to the demands of the climate emergency, when ORCIE members are advocating for approaches of integral ecology?

ORCIE’s recommendations for a federal budget defined by our vision of integral ecology was clearly outlined in our brief to the budget consultation process at the end of August. In short, ORCIE recommended action to accelerate the transition to a clean energy future, create meaningful new jobs for young people (in this moment of high youth unemployment), as well as for Canada to fulfill our promised international commitments to climate action.

The government’s “Climate Competitiveness Strategy” was finally released, a text of 14-pages in the 493- page “Canada Strong” budget document. What are the major headlines there?

Most importantly, there is no mention of Canadian commitments to achieve emission reduction targets. This represents a huge failure of government resolve. Canada’s target had been to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 40% below 2005 levels by 2030. Much more concerted action is required to meet this promise, since the latest reports show we have only managed an 8.5% reduction to date. By refusing to acknowledge this targeted commitment, much less offer a strategy to get there, the federal government has chosen to abdicate its responsibility to all Canadians, other international actors as well as God’s creation.

More specifically, Canada’s Climate Competitiveness Strategy bows down in homage to the fossil fuel industry’s refusal to proceed with an emissions cap on oil and gas production. The federal government now asks Canadians to believe that other unspecified measures, like industrial carbon pricing, enhanced regulations to lower methane emissions, and providing massive subsidies to industry for Carbon Capture, Utilization and Storage (CCUS) schemes “at scale” are enough. The document states that an oil and gas emissions cap “would no longer be required” as it would then have “marginal value in reducing emissions.”

ORCIE is left to wonder if Canada’s Climate Competitiveness Strategy is not really a blueprint for exorbitant earnings to increase in the corporate sector controlled by the fossil fuel giants. MP Elizabeth May stated that extending CCUS tax credits for another five years, costing $3 billion, is just another fossil fuel subsidy. The Green Party leader said she cannot vote in favour of this budget.

Caroline Brouillette, executive director of Climate Action Network Canada (of which ORCIE is an active member) summarized by stating: “We were looking for much-needed clarity on how Ottawa would diversify the economy away from volatile fossil fuels, meet our international climate obligations, and steer Canada towards a safer and more affordable clean energy future. We’re still waiting,”

On a hopeful note, ORCIE was pleased to see the budget commit to spend $40 million over the next two years to establish a Youth Climate Corps, providing young Canadians with a range of work experiences in green endeavours that can help build more environmentally resilient communities. (ORCIE had advocated for $1 billion for this program over five years – the amount granted will only support 350 jobs in 2026.)

ORCIE was also dismayed to read how this federal budget will reduce Canada’s International Assistance Envelope by $2.7 billion over the next four years. The government has clearly chosen to prioritize building a “hard power” future for Canada through arms spending, rather than “soft power” to build relationships of solidarity among global citizens through development cooperation. These cuts suggest that the Jubilee 2025 campaign for the cancellation of odious debts of countries of the Global South will have much more work to do.

When COP30 will be taking place in Belém, Brazil, this same month, Canadian officials will have the unenviable task of explaining why our country seems to be lowering our commitments to climate action at home and abroad. ORCIE will be present to continue to advocate for better ways to build and protect our common home, and empower actions towards a future of integral ecology.

You’re Invited: ORCIE-BCRÉI Virtual Training — Canada for Global Climate Justice

Canada must do its fair share to confront the climate emergency. That’s why we are inviting you to take part in ORCIE-BCRÉI Learning and Lobbying Days 2025: Canada for Global Climate Justice, beginning with a virtual training session.

This online event will equip you with the tools to advocate for Canada’s fair share in tackling the climate crisis — a crisis fueled by debt burdens, deepening climate impacts, cuts to foreign aid, and an unjust global financial system.

📅 When: Tuesday, September 23, 2025
🕐 Time: 1:00 PM EST
🎤 Speakers: Seth Klein & Anjali Appadurai (Climate Emergency Unit)

This online training will prepare you to meet with MPs and share how Canada can lead boldly on climate justice, economic transformation, and international solidarity. Together, we can make Canada’s voice stronger in the fight for a just and sustainable future.

👉 Register now to join us: Meeting Registration – Zoom

For more information, contact:

JOIN US: Lobby Days with MPs in Ottawa and in your local ridings

Connecting the dots between the debt crisis, the climate emergency, cuts to foreign aid and an unjust financial system, ORCIE is calling for Canada to fund our fair share to confront the climate crisis.

Will you join us for our upcoming Lobby Day September 25th, 2025 in Ottawa? Our Learning & Lobbying process prepares small teams of members of religious congregations to meet with Ministers, Parliamentary Secretaries, MPs and Members of Standing Committees on Parliament Hill.

Preparatory session with ORCIE members

Details on our Learning & Lobbying Days:

  • September 20 (Sat): Global Climate Strike, locally across Canada
  • September 23 (Tue): ORCIE Learning Session, virtual
  • September 24 (Wed) : ORCIE Preparation for meetings, Ottawa
  • September 25 (Thurs): ORCIE Lobby Day on the Hill, Ottawa
  • September 29- 30 (Mon-Tues): Meet your MP at local offices
  • October 13-17 (Mon-Fri): Meet your MP at local offices

Meeting with MP Julie Dabrusin, Parliamentary Secretary for the Environment and Climate Change

Religious are invited to join us in Ottawa for September 24-25, or to work together locally to meet MPs in their riding. For more information and to express your interest please contact Sasquia or Genevieve so we can prepare for your participation.

Meeting with MP Joanne Thompson, Minister of Fisheries and Oceans