By Vanessa Balintec  

The United States and Canada have a long history of working together when it comes to tackling shared environmental concerns. But with bigger issues such as climate change on the horizon, what does the future hold when it comes to the two countries working together to address it?

According to Toronto-based York University environmental studies professor Mark Winfield, building upon existing agreements is key to making sure new problems are being dealt with, but the lack of political will on both sides hinders collective action. 

“They’re effective, and they do set minimum standards both parties need to meet, so we can’t really go backwards into it,” says Winfield. “But we’ve not really moved forwards very effectively, and that remains the big problem.”

Policy greatly influences environmental laws and regulation

Throughout his first three years of presidency, the Trump administration had reversed dozens of environmental laws that regulate air and water quality, weakened greenhouse gas emissions, cut back protected areas, and limited wildlife protections. Many of these reversals have been fought in court by state attorneys, but according to The State Energy & Environmental Impact Center, implementation of these some of these new laws is projected to lead to thousands of premature deaths each year due to poor air quality. 

Meanwhile, Canada has long since been dealing with environmental rollbacks that originate as far back as 2012. As part of Progressive Conservative Party leader Stephen Harper’s administration, laws were changed that made it harder for public consultation to take place during environmental reviews, and regulate fisheries, lakes and rivers, while more power was given to stakeholders and companies to circumvent reviews and strict regulation.

Does tackling environmental problems mean more cross-border agreements?

Although collaboration between countries is important, experts say that agreements between countries alone aren’t going to be what incites change. Cross-border collaborations may be of lower importance as time goes on, instead prioritizing domestic policy and enforcement.

“We have this kind of globalist narrative that says we have to collaborate and problems are global, and only by working together can we solve them,” says Mathis Wagernagel, founder and president of Global Footprint Network. “But what that really means is that people think [they] can’t do anything about it, so globalizing problems actually makes it ineffective.”