Canada’s provincial leaders finalized the Canadian Energy Strategy Friday with a document many onlookers are criticizing as too reliant on traditional carbon-based sources of energy.

The strategy, intended to guide the integrated development of Canada’s energy resources across the provinces, places no restrictions on the release of greenhouse gas emissions and takes a proactive approach to building oil and gas pipelines.

According to officials who spoke with the Globe and Mail the strategy was meant to strike a balance between the energy ambitions of each province with growing concerns over global climate change.

“We have a path to pursue two critical national priorities,” a senior Alberta official said, ”how are we going to keep building our energy industry and how are we going to address climate change?”

Commitment to Cleaner Energy Long-Overdue

The Canadian Energy Strategy, although acknowledging the need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the provinces, maintains an equal opportunity approach to all energy sources — an element of the document that weakens Canada’s stance in the rapidly evolving clean energy economy according to alternative energy analysts.

Clean Energy Canada, a climate and energy think tank, said the energy strategy lacks the strong commitments needed to advance low-carbon sources of energy.

“Today’s strategy recognizes the role that renewable electricity and pricing carbon will play in this shift, but still leans heavily on traditional fossil-based energy sources,” Sarah Petrevan, senior policy advisor with Clean Energy Canada, said.

Petrevan said the document merely gives a nod to clean energy without outlining any meaningful policy for its real-world development.

“This is 2015, and we need to do better,” she said. “We need deeper reductions, and a clear plan to deliver them, we hope [the premiers’] work over the next year will yield that.”

As DeSmog Canada has previously reported, Canada has no national climate legislation and has failed for years to deliver promised regulations for the oil and gas sector. According to Environment Canada, the country is on track to miss its greenhouse gas reduction targets agreed to under the Copenhagen Accord. 

Last year Environment Commissioner Julie Gelfand released a scathing critique of Canada after she found the nation has no plan in place for reaching its climate targets and has “no climate vision” whatsoever.

Canada Missing Economic Benefits of Clean Energy

Petrevan added: “If the global economy were a baseball game, a home run would be heading straight for the clean-energy industry — but Canada hasn’t even left the dugout.”

“We’ve lost out on nearly $9 billion in clean-energy export opportunities in 2013 alone. We need a plan to transition our economy and reap the benefits of the growth and jobs that come with it.”

Petrevan and others are pointing to an absence of federal leadership as a critical weakness in Canada’s fight against climate change.

In late 2013 Canada 2020 released a poll that showed while the vast majority of Canadians (84 per cent) think the federal government has a responsibility to the take lead on combatting global climate change, very few (16 per cent) believed it was an actual priority for the government.

Diana Carney, associate with Canada 2020, said the poll results confirmed a common public sentiment across the nation: “there is a leadership vacuum when it comes to fighting climate change in this country.”

Louise Comeau, executive director of Climate Action Network Canada, said Canada should make more effort to enter into the clean energy transition, arguing that is where the future job market lies.

The strategy’s ‘non-discriminatory’ approach to all forms of energy is out-of-touch, according to the network. “What’s needed is public policy favouring clean, renewable energy over the oil, coal and natural gas unbalancing the climate system,” the group stated in a press release.

Comeau said it is not uncommon for governments to restrict the entry of harmful products into the market.

“Governments discriminate against smoking and toxics in food and consumer products,” she said. “What’s needed now is discriminatory policy against fossil fuels if we are going to drastically reduce the carbon pollution putting our health and well-being at risk.”

In early 2015 Clean Energy Canada released a report on the state of renewable energy, finding global investment in alternative energy increased by 17 per cent from 2013.

The report concluded Canada, by directing enormous subsidies and tax breaks towards the fossil fuel industry, is holding Canada’s clean energy revolution back.

Major Pipeline Rupture in Alberta Emphasizes Fossil Fuel Risks

This week a pipeline owned by oilsands operator Nexen ruptured near the company’s Long Lake facility southeast of Fort McMurray, releasing 32,000 barrels or 1.32 million gallons of bitumen emulsion into the surrounding environment.

The spill is a reminder of the high-stakes risk major oil pipelines pose to the environment, according to Peter Louwe from Greenpeace.

“Alberta has a long way to go to address its pipeline problems,” Louwe said, adding “communities have good reasons to fear having more built.”

The Enbridge Northern Gateway pipeline and Kinder Morgan Trans Mountain pipeline expansion both plan on carrying increased oilsands crude to the coast of British Columbia. The National Energy Board refused to consider the climate impacts of the pipelines during public hearings, claiming upstream impacts were not relevant to the project’s application.

A similar argument has been made by the regulator regarding TransCanada’s Energy East pipeline, currently the largest proposed pipeline on the continent.

According to the Pembina Institute the Energy East pipeline could generate up to 32 million tonnes of additional oilsands emissions from the crude it will transport, the equivalent of adding seven million more cars to Canada’s roads.

Dale Marshall, national program manager with Environmental Defence, said the premier’s energy strategy ignores the climate impacts of pipelines and is falling out of step with the rest of the world.

Marshall described the strategy as “a big step backwards.”

“By lending support to pipelines, the strategy will put Canada further out of step with the rest of the world where climate change is being treated as a serious matter,” he said.

“We in Canada need to come to grips with the fact that it’s practically impossible to grow the tar sands and reduce carbon pollution.”  

Image Credit: Government of Ontario via Flickr

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A new poll released today by Angus Reid finds the majority of Canadians support carbon pricing programs and more than half the population would like to see a national climate policy instituted at the federal level.

Although Canadians say they’re ready for climate action, there’s a lot less certainty surrounding climate leadership at the federal level, according to poll results.

There also appears to be some question about the actual impact of a carbon price but, despite the uncertainty, 75 per cent of Canadians support the idea of a national cap and trade program, and 56 per cent support the idea of a national carbon tax.

Currently Canada has a smattering of province-led carbon price initiatives — B.C.’s celebrated carbon tax being perhaps the most notable — although no national program to reduce emissions exists.

"Thankfully, we are past the point of debating whether something should be done and into a discussion of how we are going to stop climate change," Keith Stewart, energy and climate campaigner with Greenpeace Canada, said.

Canada’s premiers recently met at a climate summit to discuss provincial contributions to lowering the country’s greenhouse gas emissions. Major steps were taken at the summit — most notably Ontario’s decision to join Quebec and California’s cap and trade program — but Canada’s national contribution to tackling climate change remain a question.

Canada has no climate legislation and, according to Environment Canada, growing emissions from the Alberta oilsands will prevent the country from meeting its emission reduction targets under the Copenhagen Accord.

The majority of Canadians see climate change as a serious threat to the planet, according to a previous study from Angus Reid, and more than half of the population says the federal government is not doing enough to tackle climate change.

One in five Canadians said climate change would likely be a deciding factor for them in the upcoming federal election. About half of survey respondents indicated climate would be of moderate election importance (four to seven on a 10-point scale).

Stewart was blunt in his reading of the results: "The poll results show that a large majority of Canadians support taking action on solutions to climate change and that anyone looking to replace Stephen Harper as Prime Minister should talk a lot more about how they would do this," he said. 

The federal election is expected to take place in October. 

In December, countries will meet in Paris at the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) to reach a new global agreement on climate change. Nations were expected to release their reductions targets at the end of March but Canada declined to submit its plans.

"The only thing the Conservatives are on target to meet is complete failure," NDP environment critic Megan Leslie said at the time. "Mexico has announced its plan. The U.S. is moving forward. When will we stop being international laggards on climate change?"

Image Credit: Kris Krug

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I don’t think anyone in Canada expects our good country to meet its climate target — even with the imminent pressure of the UNFCCC meeting in Paris later this year weighing down on our collective shoulders.

We have no reason to harbour that expectation given that our own federal government via Environment Canada has been telling us for years that Canada is running off the climate track and — because of growing emissions largely from the oil and gas sector — we are getting farther and farther away from meeting our government's self-imposed climate targets.

Because of that climate failure, Canada is holding all of us back from prosperity, jobs and better health.

That’s according to a new study of benefits from international emission pledges made in the lead up to December’s UN climate summit.

Developed countries around the world — with the exception of Canada and Japan — are unveiling their individual climate plans, which are due today.

By missing the deadline, Canada will miss out on a lot more than just respect, according to the new study, released by the New Climate Institute, which based its analysis on data from the International Energy Agency.

Europe, which has pledged to cut emissions by 40 per cent by 2030 from 1990 levels, will enjoy 70,000 new full-time jobs, cut €33 billion in fossil fuel imports and prevent around 6,000 deaths from pollution, The Guardian reports.

If Europe ups its emissions reduction to 55 per cent, the benefits skyrocket. Under that scenario the study predicts Europe would see 420,000 new full time jobs, $173 billion in fuel savings and save 46,000 lives.

Limiting the planet’s temperature increase to only two degrees Celsius — the target agreed to by international climate experts and policy makers — would save more than a million lives in China and create nearly 2 million new jobs.

But tackling the issue of climate change would have massive positive benefits here at home as well.

Taking meaningful climate action would mean increasing green infrastructure, prioritizing sustainable cities and investing in renewable and low-carbon sources of energy.

It would also mean slowing the rate of expansion of oil and gas projects including the oilsands which would eventually put a stop to new pipeline projects. That would come with the added benefits of respecting the rights of local municipalities fighting pipelines and First Nations actively engaged in legal battles against both the provincial and federal governments for industrial incursions on traditional territory.

These are called co-benefits. They’re something the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change highlighted in a recent report, saying climate action comes with a host of “co-benefits, synergies and tradeoffs” that naturally result from responsible and practical long-term thinking.

In general, countries getting serious in the fight against climate change are setting themselves up to enjoy all sorts of co-benefits that Canada might miss out on, like energy efficiency, clean energy, pollution reduction, water conservation, greener cities, increased recycling, sustainable agriculture, forest preservation, healthier communities, stronger human rights practices, better protection for indigenous peoples and their way of life, cleaner oceans, more democratic and collaborative politics and more.

The list really goes on and on.

But instead of taking a pro-active approach to climate, Canada is, rather embarrassingly, getting called out for failing to do even the most basic thing: discussing climate with the provinces. 

What is worse, Canada has no federal climate legislation and recently Prime Minister Stephen Harper said regulating emissions from the oil and gas industry would be "crazy" after he adamantly rejected putting a price on carbon. Environment Commissioner Julie Gelfand released a scathing critique of Canada in October after she found the nation has no plan in place for reaching its climate targets and has "no climate vision" whatsoever.

So Canada is missing out on a lot more than today’s UN climate pledge deadline: we’re missing out on leadership, on collaboration across the nation, and, maybe most tragically, on all those benefits that come with smart decision-making.

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