WATCH: Trudeau Environment Minister praises courts decision to rule carbon tax as constitutional

Federal environment minister Jonathan Wilkinson reacted to the Supreme Court's decision on carbon pricing on Thursday, after the courts said in a 6-3 decision that the tax was constitutional.

"Ten years ago, most would have said that reaching a broadly supported consensus aside from a small but vocal number of Conservative politicians on how to aggressively fight climate change would be impossible," said Wilkinson. "Today's Supreme Court decision reaffirms that carbon pricing is integral to reducing green house gas emissions and responding to the existential threat of climate change. As of today, the federal government can continue to use a price on pollution as one key element of its comprehensive climate plan, because climate change impacts Canadians, no matter where they live in this country."

"To quote from the ruling, 'Climate change is real, it is caused by greenhouse gas emissions resulting from human activities, and it poses a grave threat to humanity's future," said Wilkinson."

Three Justices dissented on the ruling, arguing that the law infringes on the rights of the provinces and provides the federal government with extraordinary taxing power.

"When an Act endows a select few with the power to rewrite, and thus re-engineer, a law which affects virtually every aspect of individuals’ daily lives and provincial industrial, economic and municipal activities, it goes too far," argued Justice Suzanne Côté in her dissent. "The Act as it is currently written employs a discretionary scheme that knows no bounds."

The government has already chosen to dramatically raise taxes under the act since its inception. Late last year, the government announced that the tax would be increasing by 240 percent by the year 2030, an action it could take without an act of Parliament.