The United States and Canada are both failing on climate action, according to new country assessments published this week by the Climate Action Tracker, an independent research group that rates America’s climate efforts “critically insufficient” and has downgraded key parts of Canada’s record.
In its analysis, the tracker keeps America’s overall rating at “critically insufficient” while grading its policies and action as “highly insufficient”. It points to withdrawal from the Paris Agreement, efforts to repeal federal emissions regulations, cuts to clean-energy incentives and continued backing for fossil-fuel production. The Trump administration’s reversal of climate policy is described as the most aggressive, comprehensive and consequential rollback the tracker has ever analysed, according to Finn Hossfeld, the group’s US country lead at the NewClimate Institute.
Canada slips under the radar
Attention has focused on Washington, but Ottawa is sliding too. Canada’s overall rating now stands at “highly insufficient”, while its sub-rating for policies and action has been downgraded to “critically insufficient”. Prime minister Mark Carney has removed the consumer carbon price, cancelled a planned cap on oil-and-gas emissions and terminated the ‘Two billion trees’ programme early. Bill Hare, chief executive of Climate Analytics, called the extent of the rollback “shocking”, saying policy was being unwound largely in favour of the fossil-fuel industry.
The tracker warns that weakened policies in both countries are putting emissions-reduction targets further out of reach. Without reversals or new laws promoting sustainability, both countries could continue to fall down the climate rankings. The downgrades arrive as disaster headlines keep coming — communities are still reckoning with the 7.7-magnitude earthquake that struck Panama earlier this month, and dependence on fossil fuels keeps global energy politics on a knife edge.
Targets drifting out of reach
The downgrades matter because the two countries are among the world’s largest emitters per capita, and their trajectories shape global expectations. Analysts note that every round of policy reversal raises the bar for the next round of ambition, as investors and utilities recalibrate around weaker signals from government.
Whether the ratings can be turned around will depend on what comes next: concrete legislation, restored incentives and credible enforcement. For now, the watchdogs’ verdict is blunt — two of North America’s biggest economies are failing the test they set for themselves.
