• About
    • Which Energy Mix is this?
  • Climate News Network Archive
  • Contact
Celebrating our 1,000th edition. The climate news you need
No Result
View All Result
The Energy Mix
  • Canada
  • UK & Europe
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Ending Emissions
  • Community Climate Finance
  • Clean Electricity Grid
  • Cities & Communities
SUBSCRIBE
DONATE
  • Canada
  • UK & Europe
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Ending Emissions
  • Community Climate Finance
  • Clean Electricity Grid
  • Cities & Communities
SUBSCRIBE
DONATE
No Result
View All Result
The Energy Mix
No Result
View All Result
  FEATURED
Ex-Fossil Workers Convert Old Oilfields to Solar Farms After ‘Rapid Upskilling’ in Alberta June 29, 2022
London Becomes Biggest City to Sign Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty June 29, 2022
G7 Miss ‘Golden Opportunity’, Walk Back Pledge to Cut International Fossil Finance June 29, 2022
Soaring Fertilizer Prices Could Deliver ‘Silver Lining’ For Emissions, But Farmers Struggle to Limit Use June 26, 2022
BREAKING: UN Nature Summit, the ‘Paris Conference for Biodiversity’, Moves to Montreal in December June 19, 2022
Next
Prev
Home Jurisdictions Canada

Unlike 2020 Democrats, No Canadian Politician is Spotlighting Big Oil’s Climate Influence

September 19, 2019
Reading time: 3 minutes

Jasper Morse/Flickr

Jasper Morse/Flickr

15
SHARES
 

Although three of the major parties running in Canada’s federal election have put forward serious climate plans, “none of them explicitly names the oil and gas industry as the main barrier to avoiding warming having double the effect on Canada compared to the rest of the world,” reporter Geoff Dembicki writes in an analysis for The Tyee.

It’s a point of contrast that sets Canadian politicians apart from their counterparts in the United States, where the Democratic Party primary has featured a much harder-edged response to fossil politics, Dembicki says.

“That needs to be part of a climate plan, and it isn’t in anybody’s plan right now, and even saying that in Canada is impolite,” said Greenpeace Canada Senior Energy Strategist Keith Stewart. “Upstream oil and gas is the single largest source of greenhouse gas emissions in the country and the fastest-rising source, so until we’re willing to tackle the oil industry, then we are not acting like this is an emergency or even a serious problem.”

Dembicki notes that three of the frontrunners for the Democratic nomination in the U.S.—Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, and Kamala Harris—have laid out specific plans to hold fossils responsible for their role in driving the climate crisis. “Even former vice president Joe Biden, not exactly the image of an anti-corporate radical, vows to ‘take action against fossil fuel companies’,” he writes.

“This is what we did to the tobacco companies,” Harris declared. “We sued them, we took them to court.” Sanders is promising to go after “fossil fuel billionaires whose greed lies at the very heart of the climate crisis,” while Warren tagged fossils for “making the big bucks off polluting our Earth”.

Against that standard, “Canada is not even close to having that conversation politically,” though a look at the NDP, Green, and Liberal platforms suggests it “may be edging there”.

Dembicki’s post includes an initial summary of the three climate platforms that The Tyee will be augmenting later in the campaign. But “so far,” he writes, “none of the Canadian plans, not even the Greens’, addresses head-on the vast political weight and influence of the fossil fuel industry. Yet, without a rapid phaseout of oil, gas, and coal in Canada, the country is virtually guaranteed to miss the 2030 climate targets it agreed to in Paris.”

“Look, Canada is in a tough spot, we have been a petro-state for the past 15 years and the [Stephen] Harper administration did nothing to try to change that,” said University of California, Santa Barbara political scientist Leah Stokes. “In fairness to Justin Trudeau, he inherited a difficult situation.” Dembicki notes that NDP leader Jagmeet Singh was tagged as a “radical” for belatedly concluding that “the future of our country cannot involve fracking…It cannot involve the burning of any fossil fuel,” when Sanders “gets mainstream media coverage referring to the fossil fuel business model as a ‘criminal activity that cannot be allowed to continue.’”

“No matter how you feel about the confrontational rhetoric, however, it’s long overdue for Canadian politicians to reduce the carbon—and political—footprint of oil and gas companies,” Dembicki says, citing Stewart. “He throws out a few suggestions: no federal permits or funding for infrastructure projects that delay our progress to a 1.5°C world, a ban on fossil fuel advertising or sponsorship of public events, a guaranteed high-paying green job for anyone displaced by Canada’s transition to a zero-carbon economy.”

“That’s a hard change,” Stewart said, “I acknowledge that. It’s going to be a hard political fight.” 

But he contrasted that with expansion projections from the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers based on an International Energy Agency scenario that adds up to 3.5°C average global warming. With Canada warming at twice the average rate, “that’s 7.0°C,” he told Dembicki. “That’s catastrophic levels of change in a short period of time.”



in Canada, Climate Impacts & Adaptation, Coal, Energy Politics, Heat & Temperature, Oil & Gas, Pipelines / Rail Transport, Shale & Fracking, Tar Sands / Oil Sands, United States

The latest climate news and analysis, direct to your inbox

Subscribe

Related Posts

Keith Hirsche
Jobs & Training

Ex-Fossil Workers Convert Old Oilfields to Solar Farms After ‘Rapid Upskilling’ in Alberta

June 29, 2022
374
London Eye UK England
Cities & Communities

London Becomes Biggest City to Sign Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty

June 29, 2022
117
Number 10/flickr
International Agencies & Studies

G7 Miss ‘Golden Opportunity’, Walk Back Pledge to Cut International Fossil Finance

June 29, 2022
139

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

I agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy.

Trending Stories

Keith Hirsche

Ex-Fossil Workers Convert Old Oilfields to Solar Farms After ‘Rapid Upskilling’ in Alberta

June 29, 2022
374
François GOGLINS/wikimedia commons

Corrosion Problem Shutters Half of France’s Nuclear Reactors

June 29, 2022
216
David/flickr

U.S. Supreme Court Expected to Gut Emission Controls as Climate Scientists Petition for Plan B

June 26, 2022
1.2k
Danielle Scott/flickr

Advocate Urges Ottawa to Intervene Before Ontario Builds Highway 413

June 29, 2022
125
Number 10/flickr

G7 Miss ‘Golden Opportunity’, Walk Back Pledge to Cut International Fossil Finance

June 29, 2022
139
London Eye UK England

London Becomes Biggest City to Sign Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty

June 29, 2022
117

Recent Posts

AJEL / Pixabay

Windfall Tax on Food, Fossil, Pharma Giants Would Raise $490B to Solve ‘Catastrophic’ Food Crisis: Oxfam

June 29, 2022
56
futureatlas.com/flickr

Ottawa Demands Deeper Fuel Emissions Cuts, Offers Fossils a Double-Dip on Tax Breaks

June 29, 2022
75
Province of B.C./flickr

Comox Joins Municipalities Seeking Ban on New Gas Stations

June 29, 2022
72
/Piqsels

Refocus Agriculture Spending to Cut Emissions, Boost Productivity, OECD Urges Governments

June 29, 2022
27
Jimmy Emerson, DVM/flickr

Public Vigilance Key to Protecting Greenbelts for Climate Resilience, Report Finds

June 29, 2022
34
Miguel V/Wikimedia Commons

Forests Fall Short of Full Carbon Storage Potential, Study Finds

June 29, 2022
60
Next Post
Marcos Oliveira//flickr

Election Wrap: Climate Hawks Set Expectations While Scheer Promises Streamlined Fossil Development

The Energy Mix

Copyright 2022 © Smarter Shift Inc. and Energy Mix Productions Inc. All rights reserved.

Navigate Site

  • About
  • Contact
  • Privacy Policy and Copyright
  • Cookie Policy

Follow Us

No Result
View All Result
  • Canada
  • UK & Europe
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Ending Emissions
  • Community Climate Finance
  • Clean Electricity Grid
  • Cities & Communities

Copyright 2022 © Smarter Shift Inc. and Energy Mix Productions Inc. All rights reserved.

Manage Cookie Consent
To provide the best experiences, we use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behaviour or unique IDs on this site. Not consenting or withdrawing consent, may adversely affect certain features and functions.
Functional Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes. The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
Manage options Manage services Manage vendors Read more about these purposes
View preferences
{title} {title} {title}