The trio of leaders behind North America’s largest cap-and-trade market want Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper and other global leaders to do more to cut emissions and combat climate change.

California Gov. Jerry Brown joined Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne and Quebec Premier Philippe Couillard in taking aim Wednesday at Canada’s federal government for inaction on the issue, specifically calling on Harper to change his approach.

“He ought to be re-examining what he’s doing. Canada has a long way to go, as does the United States, as does everybody,” Brown, a 77-year-old Democrat, said during a press conference Wednesday at a Climate Summit of the Americas in Toronto hosted by Wynne.

Earlier this year, Ontario announced its plan to join Quebec and California’s cap-and-trade system.

“Good climate policy is good economic policy. The two can’t be separated,” said Wynne, 62, a Liberal who spars often with Harper’s Conservatives. “We need the federal government to hear this message.”

Couillard announced Wednesday Quebec would become the third province to sign on to California’s Under 2 MOU, aimed at limiting the world’s temperature increase to two degrees Celsius and limiting greenhouse gas emissions to 2 tons per capita.

The Quebec premier, 58, also a Liberal, said provinces were “filling the void” in Canada on tackling climate change issues, while Brown said more work needs to be done to build a consensus for bold action.

“It’s not about pointing fingers because we’d have to point to ourselves,” the California governor said. “We’ve got a lot to do but some people aren’t even on board to know that. So I would say, ‘Get on board. Let’s get going. Let’s work together.’”

Canada is frequently criticized for inaction on climate issues. The country isn’t on pace to meet its previous 2020 climate goal and government figures show emissions will grow — not shrink — over the next five years. In the lead-up to to the United Nations climate conference in Paris later this year, the federal government said it would reduce emissions by 30 percent, from 2005 levels, by 2030, though it offered no indication of how it will achieve that.

A spokesman for Environment Minister Leona Aglukkaq, who didn’t attend the Toronto summit, defended the federal government and criticized carbon-pricing plans as economically burdensome.

“Under the strong leadership of Prime Minister Harper we will continue to take real action to reduce emissions while keeping taxes low and growing our economy,” Ted Laking said in an e-mail.

In her opening address to the conference Wednesday morning, Wynne criticized a view regularly expressed by Harper’s government: that Canada has only a fraction of the world’s emissions and therefore can’t act alone.

Ontario’s premier said Canada and other developed nations have a moral obligation to cut emissions after benefiting from a high-carbon economy.

“There are people who will say Canada’s a small jurisdiction, we’re a small number of people, the impact we will have is not as great,” Wynne said. “But the fact is the people in this country believe we have a responsibility to do everything we can do. It is in our best interest.”

California is the most populous U.S. state, while Ontario and Quebec are Canada’s two most populous provinces. The leaders are attending the summit along with former U.S. Vice President Al Gore, former Mexican President Felipe Calderon and others.

Couillard told the conference to reject the “false choice” between growth and putting a price on carbon and that the world is “seeing the beginning of the end of the fossil fuel era.” He invited other North and South American leaders to join them in putting a price on carbon emissions.

“Make the right choice and use carbon pricing as a path to economic growth and job creation,” the Quebec premier said.

Ontario has not announced how it will structure its cap- and-trade system, or what tax revenue it projects it to generate for government.

Brown has made climate change a centerpiece of his fourth term in office. In April, he ordered greenhouse-gas emissions reduced by 40 percent below 1990 levels by 2030, the most ambitious statewide effort to combat climate change in the U.S. In May, he signed a pact with 11 U.S. and international states, including Catalonia in Spain and Mexico’s Jalisco, to curtail temperature increases from carbon pollution.

Ontario has announced its own similar 2030 target, planning to eliminate 37 percent of emissions, from 1990 levels, by that deadline.