As one of the few countries to have enshrined net-zero into law, Canada has earned praise for its climate leadership. Yet an independent report calls out its continued failures to reduce emissions.
If the climate is in peril, why has the federal government approved a pipeline that will ship close to 600,000 barrels of oil per day from Alberta to British Columbia?
State energy ministers meet this week to discuss the National Energy Guarantee. While the policy has been criticised as too modest, it would put us light years ahead of the previous climate policy paralysis.
A survey of executives in high-emitting industries such as mining and electricity generation suggests they are not engaging with the government’s flagship policy to cut greenhouse emissions.
The current domestic gas crisis will pass. But if the industry wants to surpass coal and fulfil its role as a ‘transition fuel’, it should lobby for a carbon price to help it on its way.
Labor has been criticised for vacillating about about its 50% renewable energy ambition. But its proposed emissions intensity scheme could boost green energy without any hard target at all.
India has pledged to ramp up renewable energy and make its economy more carbon-efficient. And while that will help cut emissions, the main motivation is to give power to the many who still lack access to electricity.
A year after the demise of the carbon tax, we might expect both coal and greenhouse emissions to have bounced back, at the expense of renewables like hydroelectricity. Sure enough, that’s what happened.