Mark Carney

Mark Carney is the current Prime Minister of Canada and the leader of the Liberal Party of Canada. He is running for a seat in Parliament in the Ottawa riding of Nepean in the 2025 federal election, scheduled for April 28.

Who is Mark Carney?

Carney, 60, is a banker and economist. He was born in Fort Smith, N.W.T. and raised in Edmonton. He studied economics, before working for multinational investment bank Goldman Sachs for 13 years at their offices in Toronto, London, Tokyo and New York. 

Carney worked as deputy governor of the Bank of Canada and in the federal Finance department before then-prime minister Stephen Harper appointed him to lead the Bank of Canada in 2008. 

In 2013, he became the first non-British person to be governor of the Bank of England, where he oversaw the country’s financial system amid Brexit.

He then became chair at investment management firm Brookfield and chair at financial and media company Bloomberg. Carney also served as an advisor to former prime minister Justin Trudeau on the government’s response to the pandemic. 

Carney would later become chair of the Liberal Party’s economic growth task force in 2024, before winning the Liberal leadership race on March 9 and becoming prime minister on March 14.

What role has Mark Carney played on climate action?

Carney was central in setting up a key organization that would create worldwide standards for climate-related financial disclosures for businesses — the influence of which is still felt today in Canada.

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What’s at stake for the natural world in this election? A lot — and we have you covered. Sign up for our newsletter for updates from the campaign trail and whatever comes next.

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The federal election is here

In 2011, he became chair of the Financial Stability Board, a Switzerland-based body that brings together dozens of authorities to discuss financial regulation and supervision. 

Recommendations brought about by a task force the board created became the basis for a draft proposal from provincial financial regulators in Canada and were also referenced by Canada’s banking regulator in their own climate rules. 

Carney was also appointed as the United Nations’ Special Envoy on Climate Action and Finance in 2019, and launched a taskforce on carbon markets in 2020.

Where does Carney stand on environmental issues?

Carney took steps on his first day in office as prime minister to suspend the consumer carbon tax that is part of Canada’s price on pollution. 

During his leadership campaign, he also proposed to “tighten” the carbon pricing system’s other major component, which governs large industrial emitters.

As prime minister, he has promised to build “pipelines across this country.”

He rolled out a “national trade and economic corridor” plan that would also include up to $200 million toward a new “Indigenous majority-owned” LNG plant, as well as funding for railways, ports and connections to “energy extraction sites.”

On the campaign trail, Carney has clarified he would forge ahead with the emissions cap on oil and gas the Trudeau government had proposed, but never implemented.

He also said he would speed up government investments in carbon capture and storage technology and in methane reduction technology to meet the cap’s targets.