Analysis from Tzeporah Berman
Prime Minister Mark Carney has just been listed by Newsweek as second in their list “Revenge of the Climate Heretics: The 50 Leading Eco-Policy Dissenters”. Right after Bill Gates and before Trump.
And yesterday Cansda received the “fossil of the day” at #cop31.
Oh Canada! how far we have fallen. And he seems determined to keep digging us into a deeper and deeper hole.
I know…that speech at Davos. And before that the Tragedy of the Horizons in 2015…we all want to like him.
But please, take a look at how he has gutted climate policy and is now proposing massive fast tracking new fossil fuel build out in Canada with completely inadequate indigenous consultation, no environmental assessment … even lifting the ban on Arctic oil drilling?!l
And FYI, Canadas new LNG plant is the greatest point source of methane from flaring in the world and we are told it will take “a year or two to fix it.”
19 months. 40 decisions that undermine climate action and environmental protection.
This is Prime Minister Mark Carney’s climate record.
While Canada talks about climate leadership at COP31, here’s what the government has actually done at home.
DISMANTLING CLIMATE POLICY
1. Eliminated the consumer carbon price and rebate.
2. Cancelled the oil and gas emissions cap.
3. Weakened industrial carbon pricing.
4. Delayed methane pollution reductions in Alberta by five years.
5. Suspended clean electricity regulations in Alberta.
6. Proposed weakening national clean electricity regulations to allow more fossil gas.
7. Scrapped the Electric Vehicle Availability Standard.
8. Delayed vehicle tailpipe emissions standards by three years.
9. Ended the Greener Homes Loan program.
10. Cut $5 billion from planned federal public transit funding.
11. Reduced the two-billion-trees commitment.
12. Abandoned work on banning thermal coal exports.
EXPANDING FOSSIL FUELS AND SUBSIDIES
13. Committed federal support to a new million-barrel-a-day oilsands pipeline to BC.
14. Fast-tracked the PacificLink oil pipeline as a Project of National Interest.
15. Supported further expansion of the Trans Mountain pipeline.
16. Advanced LNG Canada Phase 2.
17. Fast-tracked Ksi Lisims LNG.
18. Approved Enbridge’s $4-billion Sunrise gas pipeline expansion.
19. Committed financial support for Equinor’s proposed Bay du Nord offshore oil project.
20. Expanded carbon capture subsidies.
21. Extended carbon capture subsidies to enhanced oil recovery, which enables more oil production.
22. Weakened carbon pricing requirements while supporting the Pathways Alliance carbon capture project.
23. Introduced new LNG tax breaks.
24. Introduced accelerated capital write-offs benefiting oil and gas companies.
25. Extended the suspension of federal fuel excise taxes, costing billions in public revenue.
26. Opened the Canada Infrastructure Bank to financing fossil fuel projects.
27. Lowered Trans Mountain pipeline tolls, increasing the risk that taxpayers will not recover construction costs.
28. Announced $200 million for Woodfibre LNG.
29. Began considering lifting the moratorium on Arctic offshore oil and gas exploration.
WEAKENING ENVIRONMENTAL LAWS
30. Passed Bill C-5, giving Cabinet sweeping powers to fast-track major projects and bypass normal environmental approval requirements.
31. Introduced Bill C-39, proposing further weakening of environmental protections.
32. Exempted major categories of pipelines, oilsands extraction and gas-fired electricity facilities from federal impact assessments.
33. Proposed weakening the Species at Risk Act to allow projects that threaten endangered wildlife.
34. Proposed weakening Canada’s pesticide protections.
35. Committed to changing the Oil Tanker Moratorium Act to accommodate more oil exports from BC’s coast.
36. Weakened federal greenwashing provisions.
37. Gave Alberta greater authority over environmental assessments despite Indigenous opposition.
38. Designated Roberts Bank Terminal 2 a Project of National Interest despite serious concerns about endangered southern resident killer whales and salmon habitat.
CUTTING ENVIRONMENTAL OVERSIGHT
39. Announced $1.3 billion in cuts to Environment and Climate Change Canada.
40. Dissolved the federal Environment and Climate Change Youth Council.
And the consequences?
Canada was finally making progress on reducing emissions. Before these rollbacks, federal projections showed emissions falling 31–34% below 2005 levels by 2030.
Now we’re expanding oil and gas production, subsidizing new fossil fuel infrastructure and dismantling the policies designed to reduce emissions.
You cannot claim to be a climate leader internationally while dismantling climate policy at home.
You cannot phase out fossil fuels by building more of them.
And you cannot protect Canadians from worsening fires, floods and extreme weather while expanding the pollution driving those disasters.
This is not climate leadership. It is a fundamental reversal of Canada’s climate commitments.
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