We don’t need Band-Aid solutions for bleeding consumers, but a long-term strategy to encourage investment that marries real energy security, environmental benefits, and less exposure to volatile global energy prices.
You can’t leave an ‘all-of-society’ effort in the hands of the disparate decision-makers in that society. Mark Carney must show leadership with the provinces, municipalities, and the private sector to understand the value of nature and incorporate its protection in economic decisions.
Prime Minister Mark Carney’s cautious tone is a clear indication of the fraught path ahead as he seeks to lessen economic dependence on the United States, increase trade ties with Asia, and avoid further confrontation with an unpredictable and combative Donald Trump.
The Trump doctrine essentially portrays Canada as vassal state to American ‘pre-eminence’ in the hemisphere. Canada, Mexico and other nations of the Americas are expected to pursue their national interest—just as the U.S. does—but will pay a stiff price if their strategies do not align with MAGA America.
While Mark Carney’s public pledge on Paris obligations is welcome, it brings to mind the old saying about the road to hell being paid with good intentions.
It’s time for Mark Carney to recapture that mojo that transformed him from a grey banker to an internationally renown climate champion. Not to burnish his own reputation, but to secure a better future for all of us.
As we stand at the threshold of the AI Age, Canadian policymakers and citizens must ask: What kind of press do we want? And what kind of democracy can we keep?
While approximately 70 per cent of the project’s cost overruns will be borne by Trans Mountain, the remaining third—more than $9-billion—is considered ‘uncapped costs’ which increase tolls based on a formula agreed to by shippers and approved by the Canada Energy Regulator more than a decade ago.
Clean-energy projects—building out the grid, supporting renewable and other clean-tech investment, and financing efficiency—can deliver on affordability, growth, and sustainability goals. Carney and his key ministers should keep a copy of Value(s) by their bedsides.
It will take enormous commitment and discipline to meet the bold promise of making Canada a clean energy superpower—traits that have not yet been demonstrated on the clean energy and climate file.
As Mark Carney battles Donald Trump’s trade wars and confronts western alienation, he will also have to lead Canada’s heighten effort in the energy transition and prepare the country for the baked-in impacts of climate change.
The Liberal government is pushing for a ‘nation-building’ project to expand fossil fuel production, but the barriers are enormous.
Donald Trump represents a poisonous addition to this country’s often-rancorous, decades-old debate over pipelines and the oil and gas industry’s environmental impacts. Any appeal for unified Canadian resistance to his trade attacks will have to overcome the history of regional conflict and current cleavages.
Regardless of their stance on setting targets and acting to curb greenhouse gas emissions, governments in Canada will have to grapple with climate change’s impact on citizens’ security and wellbeing.
Climate change is now upon us. We need to prepare for the inevitable consequences of our failure to head off the crisis.
Climate risk disclosures and voluntary commitments are good but won’t help foster change in business-as-usual banking and investment. Chrystia Freeland could spur the action by quickly finalizing the taxonomy and investment tax credits.
