After a few days of plaudits for sounding more mainstream, Poilievre reminds everyone he is a climate denier, and lacks an understanding of the global marketplace. The Trump administration has dented, but not ended, the drive towards emissions reduction. Capital investments in energy were expected to hit $3.3 trillion in 2025. Of every 3 dollars invested, 2 were going to...
The premier defector from, and debunker of, the “Green Terror,” which holds that climate change is an existential challenge to the continuation of life on earth, is probably Bjorn Lomborg, president of the Copenhagen Consensus Centre and former director of the Danish government’s Environmental Assessment Institute. He has been a prominent climate change skeptic for years, and has roiled the...
As a nation Canada might not be meeting its national climate targets, but the federal government is exceeding its own internal greenhouse-gas-reduction goals. In an update Monday, the government of Canada said carbon pollution from its operations is down by 42.5 per cent below 2005 levels. This exceeds Ottawa's 40 per cent reduction target and represents a slashing of 1.02...
A new study published Friday by the Canadian Climate Institute says Canada is not on track to meet any of its climate targets -- not the 2026 interim emissions reduction target, the 2030 Paris Agreement commitment, or even the long-term goal of reaching net-zero emissions by 2050. The report suggests Canada has moved away from its climate goals thanks to...
The launch of a new Canadian diplomatic mission in Greenland is sparking hopes for more collaboration on climate change, Inuit rights and defence in the face of U.S. President Donald Trump's annexation threats. Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand is set to officially open the new consulate Friday in Greenland's capital Nuuk, where the Canadian consulate has been operating quietly for...
The Net-Zero Advisory Body is asking Environment Minister Julie Dabrusin to publicly pause the advisory group until she appoints six new members and agrees to regular meetings, part of an effort to get the body “functional” again, says Karen Ross, one of only four remaining members. “We cannot continue in a state in which we are, functionally and operationally, unable...
The waters around the Queen Elizabeth Islands and western Tuvaijuittuq in Canada's High Arctic have long remained a mystery to scientists. Often referred to as one of the last places in the world with year-round sea ice, these waters have historically been difficult to access because of the thickness of the ice. But melting sea ice has opened a path...
Anglican Deacon Michael Van Dusen typically has plans for the Christmas season that do not involve a Toronto courthouse. Perhaps he would be preparing his Christmas Day sermon or visiting with family. But on Tuesday, he stood beside a painted banner that read "no faith in fossil fuels" and spoke to a small crowd, including some of his parishioners, about...
NDP leadership hopeful Avi Lewis earlier this month released his shoot-for-the stars climate policy, titled A Green New Deal for Canada. It’s a retooled shopping list of laudable ideas, starting with a complete ban on new fossil fuel extraction projects, which we know are the single biggest contributor to global warming. Lewis proposes investing billions in “clean energy, building retrofits...
Ten months before he resigned from Mark Carney's cabinet, Steven Guilbeault vouched for the then Liberal leadership contender. "I've known Mark for many years. We've worked together on issues of green energy, transition, fighting climate change and the role of the financial sector in fighting climate change," Guilbeault told reporters when he endorsed Carney's candidacy to lead the party in...
Two former members of the federal Net-Zero Advisory Body say they’re “worried about the future of Canada” and say the country will not meet its commitment to lower greenhouse gas emissions by 40 to 45 per cent by 2030. Catherine Abreu and Simon Donner were founding members of the expert-appointed body which advises the government on the path to net-zero...
Former environment minister Steven Guilbeault, who resigned last week from Prime Minister Mark Carney’s cabinet over a “profound” disagreement in climate policy, says it will now be “impossible” for the federal government to reach its 2030 emissions targets in the wake of the energy deal with Alberta. “I think that my government needs to be honest with Canadians,” Guilbeault said...
Environment minister suggests equivalency agreement with Alberta is in the works. Ottawa’s clean electricity regulations' days are numbered in Alberta, after Prime Minister Mark Carney and Alberta Premier Danielle Smith signed their memorandum of understanding last week. The federal government suspended the regulations meant to rein in Canada’s worst polluter, but it hasn’t explained how it is going to ensure...
The COP30 Global Climate Summit in Belém, Brazil marked the 10th anniversary of the landmark Paris Accord, where countries agreed to limit global warming to 1.5 C above pre-industrial levels by 2050. The world is now anticipated to heat up by 2.6 C above preindustrial levels by the end of the century.
Gerald Butts is vice-chairman of Eurasia Group. Peter Nicholson and Rick Smith are chair of the board and president of the Canadian Climate Institute. The rest of the world is ramping up its transition to cleaner, more efficient, electric technologies, while the Trump administration is leading the United States down a dead-end street. That’s one rather glaring conclusion from the...
Canada’s new environment minister and Environment and Climate Change officials confirmed that the federal government is standing by the national climate targets previously set under Justin Trudeau. On several occasions, Environment and Climate Change Minister Julie Dabrusin was asked about whether the current Liberal government was still committed to working toward the near-term targets set under the previous prime minister...
Canadian climate negotiators are headed to Brazil for the next two weeks as leaders gather for annual United Nations climate talks. The talks come as Prime Minister Mark Carney, whose credentials as an international climate advocate helped win him support in this year's election, comes under increasing scrutiny for his reversal of some key Trudeau-era climate policies -- and his...
Canada finds itself at a critical inflection point. Rising geopolitical instability and a strained relationship with the US are forcing us to reconsider our place in the world and chart a new path to economic, energy and national security.
Mark Carney clearly cares about climate policy. He spent much of his career, and especially the more recent portion, articulating the key role he saw for financial markets in pricing and ultimately reducing greenhouse gas emissions. And yet, during his almost eight months as prime minister, he has been conspicuously quiet about an issue that seemed to define his politics...
Canada is on the cusp of a clean-energy revolution. Policy alone won’t get it there — private capital, innovation and Indigenous partnerships must move now or watch others claim the future. Global investment in clean energy surpassed US$2.1 trillion in 2024, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA). Yet Canada’s private investment per capita still lags behind OECD peers like...
Most Canadians know that Prime Minister Mark Carney entered politics with heavy-hitting experience as an economist and central banker. But perhaps less known is Carney’s pre-political role in the fight for climate action. “The challenges currently posed by climate change pale in significance compared with what might come,” Carney said in a landmark speech at insurance company Lloyd's of London...
A decade ago, Mark Carney gave a rousing speech about the power of governments to change course before climate-driven chaos shifted into truly unpredictable territory. At the time, Carney was speaking to insurance market Lloyd’s of London, in his former role as governor of the Bank of England. He began by acknowledging how insurers had been “dealing with the reality”...
On the same day the prime minister talked about the importance of “climate competitiveness” in keeping Canada’s economy strong and secure, his Liberal government gave the go-ahead to a major new piece of fossil fuel infrastructure. Well, not quite.
In Pincher Creek, wind is king, roaring down the eastern Rockies, delivering power for generations, so much so the municipal district made a windmill part of its corporate logo. Not anymore. District Reeve Rick Lemire said the windmill image, which sits alongside other Alberta icons on the logo -- a wild rose, wheat, a pumpjack and cattle -- will soon...
More than 250 elected officials across Canada have signed onto a campaign calling on the federal government to prioritize major infrastructure projects that help in the fight against climate change. Calling themselves the Elbows Up for Climate coalition, the officials say Canadians need projects that can protect the economy from the U.S. trade war but also that can help Canada...
Canada and other major fossil fuel-producing countries are derailing the world's chance to hit key targets to rein in climate change, a new international report suggests, with 2030 production levels expected to be more than double what would be compatible with the Paris Agreement. While some countries have committed to a clean energy transition, others appear to be turning back...
Years of progress on bringing Canada's carbon emissions down have stalled, and future progress looks increasingly fragile, according to an early 2024 emissions estimate from the Canadian Climate Institute (CCI). The leading climate policy think-tank, which publishes its estimates a few months before the government does, is saying for the first time that Canada will not meet its 2030 emissions target.
Former Liberal environment minister Catherine McKenna is casting doubt on attempts to strike a “grand bargain” between the federal government and the fossil fuel industry, as she stresses the importance of Canada’s greenhouse emissions targets under the international Paris Agreement that Prime Minister Mark Carney has recently downplayed. In an interview with the Star to mark the release of her...
This is a challenging post to write, because I personally believe climate change is real and an urgent problem. I first started measuring public opinion about climate change more than 20 years ago. I watched as the issue moved from a small topic to a broad consensus, and as voters pushed politicians for more action, more quickly.
This is a challenging post to write, because I personally believe climate change is real and an urgent problem. I first started measuring public opinion about climate change more than 20 years ago. I watched as the issue moved from a small topic to a broad consensus, and as voters pushed politicians for more action, more quickly.
Prime Minister Mark Carney won't say whether Canada will meet its climate goals under the Paris agreement by 2030. Speaking in Newfoundland and Labrador today, Carney was asked by reporters how Canada is planning on adjusting its climate change targets, after recent policy announcements dialed back some of the Trudeau government's climate initiatives. Those include eliminating the consumer carbon price...
Several members, including Canada's major banks, left group after Trump's re-election. An international green banking alliance that Prime Minister Mark Carney helped establish is now suspending its activities and holding a vote to determine its future. The Net-Zero Banking Alliance (NZBA) is the industry-led banking element of the Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero (GFANZ) that was created when Carney...
We don’t often get a look at a potential prime minister’s detailed policy proposals. But in 2021 Mark Carney published a book that laid it all out for us. ”Values: Building a Better World for All,” states in no uncertain, and often very complicated, terms what we must do to build a better world. But one of the key themes...
Should Canada come clean and admit it won’t meet its climate goals? Prime Minister Mark Carney is facing mounting pressure to act on climate change amid another near-record-shattering wildfire season and scorching hot summer. But five months after taking Canada's top political job, it's unclear whether he will pursue his Liberal predecessor's deep emissions cuts.
