Climate activists award Carney, other absent world leaders ‘fossil of the day’ title

OTTAWA — Prime Minister Mark Carney and several other world leaders who failed to attend the UN Climate Conference in Turkey have been awarded the “fossil of the day” title.

Climate Action Network International, which has handed out the satirical award since 1999, says Tuesday’s edition went to the “absent leaders of wealthy countries,” including Canada, Germany, France, Japan and Denmark.

“Despite widespread public demands for stronger climate action, these countries’ empty chairs send a dismal signal about their commitment to international climate co-operation,” said a Climate Action Network International press release.

“They haven’t gone as far as the United States in abandoning the Paris Agreement altogether, but they appear to have decided that COP31 is no longer important enough to warrant their presence.”

The press release said the leaders’ summit is where heads of government set political direction, build alliances and “earn the trust that unlocks progress in the negotiations.”

“It is also where they can sit down with their peers from vulnerable countries and hear their priorities first-hand,” it said. “With multilateral co-operation under growing strain, that matters more than ever.”

Canada’s reputation as a global climate leader took a hit last year when it was awarded the “fossil of the day” award at the UN Climate Conference in Brazil.

At the time, Climate Action Network International said Canada was singled out for the first time in more than a decade for “flushing years of climate action down the drain.”

New Zealand received the award on Monday, as Climate Action Network International said its government has dismantled its climate commitments by gutting methane targets and changing the law to shield corporations from climate litigation.

Environment Minister Julie Dabrusin is attending the first week of the conference and some climate activists say Canada can expect some criticism there from other nations over its recent climate policy shifts.

Since taking office, Carney has rolled back or cancelled a number of climate policies enacted by former prime minister Justin Trudeau, including the consumer carbon tax, an electric vehicle sales mandate and an emissions cap on oil and gas production.

Canada’s environment commissioner issued a report last month which said the government abandoned work in 2024 on a 2021 pledge to ban exports of thermal coal, without any record of having a directive to do so.

Ottawa said that work is only “paused,” though the report also said Ottawa formalized the end of the work in August 2025 as part of budget cuts.

Carney was in Montreal Tuesday where he hosted a discussion with leaders in Canada’s cultural sector to highlight investments in the federal budget that support Canadian culture.

On Wednesday, he will participate in a national Remembrance Day ceremony in Ottawa before leaving on a 10-day overseas trip that does not include travel to COP in Turkey.

He will attend the European Political Community summit in Dublin, Ireland, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations summit in Manila, Philippines, the biennial Francophonie summit of French-speaking nations in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, and finally the Asia-Pacific Economic Coooperation summit in Shenzhen, China.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 10, 2026.

-With files from Nick Murray and Dylan Robertson

Catherine Morrison, The Canadian Press