A new analysis shows the Carney government's pipeline deal could lead Canada further from its climate targets, even with an agreement on carbon pricing. The independent Canadian Climate Institute modelled the impact of the new deal between Alberta and Ottawa on carbon pollution. Compared with the emissions trajectory before the deal was signed, the institute's analysis found Canada's emissions would...
The federal government is facing increased pressure to state whether it knows how some of its recent policy changes will affect Canada's greenhouse gas emissions. Environment Minister Julie Dabrusin was peppered with questions on the issue at a parliamentary committee hearing on Thursday. Bloc Quebecois MP Patrick Bonin pressed Dabrusin on whether the government had modelling to show how it...
One word kept coming up this week, as Steven Guilbeault tendered his resignation from a government in which he no longer thought he could do his most important work. The word was “room.” As in: Is there still room on the Liberal benches for an ardent environmentalist? Can the party offer room for pipeline and resource proponents, alongside people animated...
As Guilbeault resigns, McKenna, Wilkinson and 'Katy Perry's boyfriend' in one room. It was the end of an era and the four politicians who were its chief architects gathered in one room in Ottawa. Former prime minister Justin Trudeau and his former climate change cabinet ministers — Catherine McKenna, Jonathan Wilkinson and Steven Guilbeault — on Wednesday were at the...
Liberal MP Steven Guilbeault was, for a time, the right man for the moment. That moment was 2019 and a few years that followed, before the worst polarizing effects and economic shockwaves of the COVID pandemic took hold and climate change still rates as a top political concern for Canadians. Guilbeault, a former Greenpeace activist turned Liberal politician, based much...
The co-chair of the Liberal climate caucus told the National Post that he “absolutely” supports Prime Minister Mark Carney’s approach to climate change policy. Éric St-Pierre has been conspicuously avoiding interviews about the caucus that he co-created to bring climate change issues back to the forefront of the government’s agenda ever since he gave an interview to Radio-Canada revealing the...
The federal Liberal climate caucus will meet Monday night, amid reporting several of Prime Minister Mark Carney’s MPs are concerned he’s backsliding on environmental commitments, sources tell CTV News. Sources also say Canadian Climate Institute president Rick Smith will attend the meeting to speak with MPs. The meeting comes amid reporting from Radio-Canada that more than a dozen MPs sent...
Letter was sent to PM prior to latest pipeline agreement with Alberta. Liberal MP Steven Guilbeault may be the most outspoken, but he's not the only member of his party unhappy with Prime Minister Mark Carney's environmental rollbacks. Carney signed a new agreement with Alberta Premier Danielle Smith last week that could see construction on an oil pipeline to the...
Former Liberal environment minister Stéphane Dion says Ottawa’s recent proposal to streamline major project reviews—which some environmentalists say could result in “the most consequential change to the fabric of Canadian environmental law in a generation”—is the latest in a trend of “backlash against climate policies.” “There is the sense that we went too far,” said Dion in an interview with...
Is Canada on track to meet its climate goals? The honest answer is “no,” and the really honest answer is that Canada’s climate goals will never be reached. They are folly and were designed by climate idealogues who had no concept of consequence, economic reality, or un...
The federal government's strategy to protect more than $100 billion worth of key infrastructure from the destructive impacts of climate change has significant gaps, with three key departments well behind where they need to be. That's the verdict of an audit by Commissioner of the Environment and Sustainable Development Jerry V. DeMarco of the federal government's Greening Government Strategy. "As...
The economist John Maynard Keynes is reputed to have said, “When the facts change, I change my mind. What do you do, sir?” Still, this is a hard piece for me to write. I devoted several years of my life to helping create the Oil Sands Pathways to Net Zero Alliance and its carbon capture, use and storage (CCUS) project...
Earlier this month, the federal government quietly released its annual inventory of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, now with data up to 2024. The news was not good. Carbon pollution reduction effectively stalled in 2024 (down a measly 0.3 per cent from the previous year and down only 10 per cent from 2005). Canada, simply put, is not on the trajectory...
PORTSMOUTH, Va. (AP) -- When President Donald Trump tried to cancel five massive offshore wind projects under construction along the East Coast, it wasn't just environmentalists who cried foul. Nine Republicans in the U.S. House sent a letter to administration officials demanding an explanation.
Canada is at a crossroads. In the coming days and weeks, the federal government will decide whether the country compromises its climate commitments or embraces a more sustainable path towards a greener future.
An energy and climate policy-focused think tank is urging Prime Minister Mark Carney to deliver results on a slate of “critical” issues related to the federal government’s memorandum of understanding with Alberta, namely the industrial carbon pricing system. “This is the most important element of the (memorandum of understanding, or MOU),” wrote Chris Severson-Baker, the executive director of the Alberta-based...
Prime Minister Mark Carney said Tuesday he's still committed to delivering incentives to help Canadians go green, something he promised during his bid for the Liberal leadership a year ago. Carney promised during the leadership campaign to re-fund the government's Greener Homes Grant program and to explore offering discounts to low- and medium-income homeowners who make energy-efficient retrofits.
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.
