Last week, the United Kingdom did something all too rare: it chose leadership by backing science and prioritizing public safety. The Labour government announced it would ban new oil and gas licences in the North Sea, strengthen a windfall tax and accelerate phasing out of fossil-fuel subsidies.
These are not symbolic gestures. They are an acknowledgment that the global energy system is shifting and that mature economies must shift with it.
And they came in the same week that catastrophic floods swept across south-east Asia, killing more than 1,000 people and displacing over a million. The real-world imperative to transition off fossil fuels has never been so urgent.
But, at the exact moment the UK stepped forward, Canada stepped back.
Ottawa signed a new Memorandum of Understanding with Alberta to support a new oil sands pipeline that would facilitate increased production of fossil fuels. The deal would delay methane regulations, cancel an oil and gas emissions cap and exempt the province from clean electricity rules. All this comes as leaders are lifting environmental-assessment requirements for major projects, preparing to weaken greenwashing laws and suspending Canada’s electric vehicle sales mandate. The MP Steven Guilbeault resigned from Mark Carney’s cabinet rather than defend the retreat.
The contrast could not be sharper: while climate effects intensify and economies pivot, Canada is reinforcing the very industries driving the crisis.
Internationally, the commitment is crystal clear. At COP28, in Dubai in 2023, Canada, the UK, and 190 countries agreed for the first time to transition away from fossil fuels. You do not “phase out” something by building more of it. A pipeline enabling 1m additional barrels a day pushes Canada in the opposite direction of what it has already promised.
Carney built his reputation by warning that climate inaction threatens economic stability and that finance must align with the reality of a warming world. Instead, he is overseeing decisions that deepen Canada’s dependence on an industry whose expansion directly fuels the disasters already devastating communities.
Tzeporah Berman [author] is a Canadian environmental activist, campaigner and writer
Carney is a capitalist. He's a banker. He's pro money and doesn't give a shit about the environment.
Check out section 208 of Bill C-15 which gives a minister the ability to allow any entity to ignore a law for a period of time. They could freely allow a company to ignore environmental laws for example.
Here's the relevant part of the bill copied below, and the link to the bill on parl.ca. Scroll down a little bit to section 208. There are some things I trimmed out for brevity. This is not the whole thing, just the parts I considered most relevant.
208 Section 11 of the Act and the heading before it are replaced by the following:
#Exemptions to Encourage Innovation, Competitiveness or Economic Growth
Order
12 (1) Subject to subsections (3) and (7), a minister may, by order, for a specified validity period of not more than three years and on any terms that the minister considers appropriate, exempt an entity from the application of
Conditions
(3) A minister may make an order under subsection (1) only if the minister is of the opinion that
#Transparency and Parliamentary Oversight
Accessibility
14 (1) Subject to subsections (2) and (3), a minister must, as soon as feasible after making an order under section 12, make the order and the following information publicly accessible:
Exception
So he's more or less like the vast majority of Canadians. He won the election killing the carbon levy, because too many poor Canadians are struggling to gas up their V8 pickups after commuting at 140 km/hr.
Forget the EV mandate. It's gone.
One weak argument is that he needed to do this to counter effects of Trump until the CDN economy can stop being addicted to the US economy, but practically he's just aligning Canada with weakening US environmental laws.
Oil companies win on both sides of the border.
Everywhere. Hasnt Europe loosened some of their Envriomental stuff to apease Trump? The whole world is addicted to the US dollar. Largest economy in the world and they consume more then any other country.
Giving in to trump is one of the stupidest things imaginable. I will never understand how anyone fell for him. When I studied the rise of Hitler during ww2 I was confused as to how anyone fell for a buffoon like him and still am.
Yet people continue to fall for this shit.