With spotlight on politicians and their pledges in Baku, fossil fuel lobbyists are racking up private meetings with Trudeau’s government.

In the last year Pathways Alliance, a coalition representing six of the largest oil sands companies, booked 78 meetings with almost 40 senior federal officials including the deputy prime minister, three ministers, three deputy ministers, six assistant deputy ministers, three chiefs of staff, seven members of parliament and two senators. The deputy secretary to the cabinet for clean growth had 38 separate meetings with lobbyists for the Pathways Alliance.

Back at COP29, Canadian hypocrisy is rich indeed. Even if carbon capture of oil sands production worked perfectly, this multi-billion dollar bandaid – largely funded by taxpayers – would only deal with about 20 percent of ultimate emissions. The other 80 percent of downstream emissions from Canadian fossil fuels exported elsewhere in the world now exceeds our entire economy by 327 MT/yr – an amount more than the annual emissions from the UK or 190 other countries.