The premiers of Canada’s 13 provinces and territories have adopted a revamped principles for a Canadian Energy Strategy that attaches as much importance to climate change as it does to energy transport and transmission. Québec and, earlier, British Columbia had previously refused to join the strategy, and newly-elected Québec Premier Philippe Couillard had said he would only participate in a deal that recognized “the essential link between environment and energy strategy.” A section of the two-page communiqué on social and environmental responsibility explicitly commits premiers to “addressing climate change and moving towards a lower carbon economy.” Provincial and territorial governments will add detail to the plan over the next year, leading up to the annual premiers’ meeting in 2015. “We can’t tackle climate change without cleaning up our energy system, so any effective energy strategy for Canada needs to be a climate strategy, too,” said Clare Demerse, Senior Policy Advisor at Clean Energy Canada, in a release last Friday. “The new principles give far more emphasis to cutting carbon pollution and growing Canada’s clean energy economy than premiers did a year ago.”
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