The Office of Religious Congregations for Integral Ecology

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Hope for a Global Plastics Treaty and how Canada can help

The latest negotiations for a Global Plastics Treaty have failed to reach agreement thanks to push back from oil producing states and petrochemical industry balking at the idea of limiting the production of plastic. The 2025 negotiations were to be the critical final phase of the progress of the Global Plastics Treaty. This is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to address plastic pollution and reshape the future landscape of the plastics industry into a more circular economy.

For context, the United Nations Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee on Plastic Pollution was set up to develop an international, legally-binding treaty targeting plastics pollution and to eliminate plastic waste by 2040. ORCIE has been closely following the Treaty Process and Sue Wilson, csj participated in the 2024 INC-4 in Ottawa. Before this month’s talks in Geneva, the INC had already met five times, most recently in Busan, South Korea in 2024, and had expected to finalize the treaty in 2025. Instead, frustrated by debate over whether to focus on plastic waste reduction or address the entire plastic lifecycle (from design to the phasing out of harmful chemicals) the negotiations ended with no agreement.

For excellent coverage read this excellent article from National Catholic Reporter: With no treaty to control plastics, concern over harm to people and planet grows.

There is good news! The majority of countries remain committed to securing binding targets to curb plastic pollution, and all countries will remain at the table. Canada played a key role, by championing the rights of Indigenous people and insisting any treaty must include real measures to curb plastic pollution. 

What now? It is our collective advocacy that has kept true hope alive for an effective treaty to end plastic pollution. With Environmental Defence you can send a letter to Canada’s Environment Minister Julie Dabrusin, encouraging her to continue to take ambitious action to end plastic pollution. In the meantime, Canada can get to work at home to strengthen its own policies and regulations to eliminate harmful plastic products and chemical additives while supporting alternatives to single-use plastics, including accessible reuse and refill systems. 

Canada’s Fair Share

ORCIE is working with organizations from across Canadian civil society to call upon the government of Canada to fulfill our fair share of the global effort to confront the climate crisis. As the 30th annual UN Climate Change Conference (COP30) approaches, Prime Minister Carney has a generational opportunity and responsibility to lead boldly on climate justice, economic transformation, and international solidarity.

The climate emergency was created and is accelerated by a deeply unjust global economic system that is unfairly distorted against Indigenous communities and the Global South.

Countries like Canada – one of the wealthiest in the world, one of the largest historic climate polluters and one of the primary crude oil and gas producers – must contribute its fair share towards global climate action. We must not only make a domestic just
energy transition off fossil fuels but must also use our wealth – generated from resource extraction at home and around the world – to support the Global South to do the same and adapt to the climate crisis.

The Fair Share Platform for Global Climate Equity

This is not charity, but an imperative – recognized under the 2015 Paris Agreement – that countries must fund global climate actions according to their responsibility for the climate crisis and their ability to pay.

Why this matters

We believe that the time has come to reckon with Canada’s role in the international community. Canada can show leadership in supporting energy transitions around the world. We can also help transform unfair systems that have become barriers to climate action.

Doing our fair share means building a new package of support to the international community from the Canadian government – rooted in justice and led by social movements.

  • Triple Canada’s climate finance to support the Global South with grants, not loans.
  • Cancel unjust Global South debt and free billions for climate solutions.
  • Make big polluters and the ultra-rich pay their fair share. 
  • End trade rules that undermine climate action. 

    Read the full platform for a detailed breakdown of how Canada can do its part in the global climate fight.

    Individuals are encouraged to sign the petition to send these demands to the Prime Minister and key cabinet ministers.

    Religious congregations are invited to sign on as an organization and can do so through this form.

    Linking Ecological Debt to Global Financial Exploitation

    For Jubilee 2025 ORCIE explores the concept of ecological debt and its deep connections to global financial exploitation in a special deep-dive position paper, Linking Ecological Debt to Global Financial Exploitation. This paper explores the deep-rooted connections between environmental destruction, colonial legacies, and the ongoing economic disparities between the Global North and South. Inspired by Pope Francis’s urgent appeal for debt forgiveness and systemic reform, the paper advocates for a reform of the current global economic system to advance the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG’s). We invite you to engage with this vital conversation and join us in the pursuit of a just and compassionate future.

    Find the executive summary here: Linking Ecological Debt to Global Financial Exploitation Summary

    Find the Spanish version of the Executive Summary Here: Vinculando la deuda ecológica a la explotación financiera mundial

    Ecological_Debt_ Position_Paper_FINALDownload

    Long-awaited emissions cap for Canada’s fossil fuel sector

    On November 20, 2025 ORCIE sent a letter to Steven Guilbeault, Minister of the Environment and Climate Change at the release of the draft Oil and Gas Sector Greenhouse Gas Emissions Cap Regulations. We recognized its importance as the first emissions regulation of Canada’s oil and gas sector. Faith groups and environmental organizations, like ORCIE, have long campaigned for these regulations and we welcome this plan to limit the emissions from the largest contributor to the current climate emergency.

    ORCIE as an organization and as part of the CAN-Rac coalition have made submissions to the Consultation: Proposed Oil and Gas Sector Greenhouse Gas Emissions Cap Regulations. Individuals are invited to do the same, participation is open until January 8th, 2024. Consultation: Proposed Oil and Gas Sector Greenhouse Gas Emissions Cap Regulations – Canada.ca

    ORCIE’s letter and submission includes these notes:

    • Faith groups have long supported regulating pollution, and we appreciate the hard work needed to protect Canadians from worsening climate impacts.

    • We are pleased to see the emissions cap regulations are shifting the responsibility for addressing pollution back onto industry. Let’s ensure the regulations have zero compliance flexibility, offsets, and loopholes.

    • We cannot allow the oil and gas industry to continue to produce pollution and cancel out efforts made by other parts of the economy.

    • We need to ramp up the ambition, with rules that take effect sooner than the proposed 2030 timeline and align these regulations with Canada’s climate commitment of a 40-45 per cent emissions reduction by 2030.

    • ORCIE calls for a 60% reduction of GHG emissions below 2005 levels by 2030, because of the urgent need for fossil fuel companies to cut production and emissions.

    • We want Canada to remain a leader amongst nations, putting binding limits on oil and gas pollution, and demonstrating how the Paris Agreement’s five-year cycle of increasingly ambitious climate action or, ratcheting up, actually works.

    • Canada can show its increased ambition nationally by finalizing these regulations and implementing them immediately, ahead of the federal budget and the 2025 election.

    Climate Aligned Finance

    The climate emergency calls for new energy to debate ambitious ideas and innovative solutions – including ideas for our federally regulated financial institutions, who need to get in line with science and Canada’s international commitments. Instead of debating the best in international financial practices the Senate Committee on Banking, Commerce and the Economy is letting Bill S-243 on Climate Aligned Finance languish.

    ORCIE long ago joined over 120 organizations endorsing Bill S-243 as a crucial starting point on how we will invest in a fair and just future for the next generation. We know climate change is risky business for individual companies or for banks, but what about the systemic risk that federal financial institutions impose on the real economy when they are financing fossil fuel expansion?

    It’s time to recognize Bill S-243 as a key climate solution and move this bill forward. While many are preparing for COP29 in Azerbaijan, at home in Canada let’s ensure our financial system does not continue to fund activities that are fueling the climate emergency. Watch for upcoming advocacy activities on this file.