Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, climate action is reconciliation. We're on the heels of a dry summer season of record heat and wildfire in many parts of the world spurred by a rapidly warming planet and marked by a significant absence of global climate action ambition. Yesterday we heard an excellent synopsis of this government's persistence to overpromise and under deliver on climate action and the grim reality of the progress of energy alternatives. Globally, Indigenous people protect 80 percent of the world's biodiversity but account for less than 5 percent of the global population. The true costs of climate inequity are disproportionately paid for by Indigenous Canadians where the impacts of climate injustice threaten human rights over life, water, sanitation, food supply, health, housing, selfdetermination, culture, and development.
Climate change is disproportionately impacting the North. But globally people are mobilizing, especially our children, who are increasingly turning to the courts to hold governments accountable in the fight against climate change.
This summer 16 Montana youth brought forward a suit against the state of Montana and won. The youth said the state violated their right to, quote, "a clean and healthful environment, as well as their rights to dignity, health, and safety, and equal protection in law." In April, Ontario youth took their province to court in Mathur v. Ontario. The case was dismissed but not before the judge agreed that Indigenous people and youth are disproportionately impacted by climate change and that the government is risking the lives of its residents by not going further. These are just two examples of hundreds of climate litigation cases being adjudicated around the world. Globally, courts are helping people hold governments accountable to their climate action responsibilities.
By 2050, there will be over 1.2 billion climate refugees worldwide displaced by extreme weather, rising temperatures, and damaged ecosystem. What people pass off as just a few degrees difference equate to massive shifts in weather systems, food supply, and way of life closer to the poles or here in the Northwest Territories. NWT residents have quickly become statistics as climate refugees temporarily displaced by the unmitigated impacts of climate change.
Lack of true climate action jeopardizes true reconciliation as it risks further threats against treaty and land settlement agreement rights, Charter rights, and threatens culture, traditions, and customs. The climate crisis is gaining speed, Mr. Speaker, and the work to mitigate it needs to be transparent, aspirational, funded, and fulfilled. Mr. Speaker, what would an NWT judge say about this government's climate action and its infringement on human rights and treaty rights? Thank you.
Thank you, Member for Kam Lake. Members' statements. Member for Sahtu.
