• About
    • Which Energy Mix is this?
  • Climate News Network Archive
  • Contact
The climate news that makes a difference.
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
  • Canada
  • UK & Europe
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Ending Emissions
  • Community Climate Finance
  • Clean Electricity Grid
  • Cities & Communities
  FEATURED
BP Predicts Faster Oil and Gas Decline as Clean Energy Spending Hits $1.1T in 2022 January 31, 2023
Canada Needs Oil and Gas Emissions Cap to Hit 2030 Goal: NZAB January 31, 2023
Ecuador’s Amazon Drilling Plan Shows Need for Fossil Non-Proliferation Treaty January 31, 2023
Rainforest Carbon Credits from World’s Biggest Provider are ‘Largely Worthless’, Investigation Finds January 31, 2023
Danske Bank Quits New Fossil Fuel Financing January 23, 2023
Next
Prev

‘Checking the Boxes’ in Federal Climate Plan Won’t Deliver on Canada’s Paris Targets, Researchers Warn

April 19, 2021
Reading time: 6 minutes
Primary Author: Mitchell Beer @mitchellbeer

George Socka/Wikimedia Commons

George Socka/Wikimedia Commons

16
SHARES
 

Two veteran public interest researchers have come up with a troubling equation they say is at the heart of the federal government’s climate strategy: Carbon Pricing + Hydrogen + Carbon Capture + Nuclear = Paris 2030 and beyond.

“It is never expressed but it is clear,” write retired researchers and activists David Robertson and Terry Moore, in a blistering critique they produced for Seniors for Climate Action Now (SCAN!). While the strategy contains “some useful initiatives, hopeful promises, encouraging developments,” they add, “somehow it feels as if the Liberals are checking the appropriate boxes on a green initiatives checklist rather than developing the elements of a comprehensive climate action plan,” leaving the government with a “smorgasbord of initiatives” that is ultimately “insufficient to the task”.

  • The climate news you need. Subscribe now to our engaging new weekly digest.
  • You’ll receive exclusive, never-before-seen-content, distilled and delivered to your inbox every weekend.
  • The Weekender: Succinct, solutions-focused, and designed with the discerning reader in mind.
New!
Subscribe

And “behind this formula is arrayed a powerful set of forces—big oil and gas, the hydrogen lobby, the nuclear industry, the carbon storage companies, the big emitters.”

Terry Moore and David Robertson are scheduled to present their findings Wednesday at a webinar hosted by Below2°C. Register here.

Unlike most of the climate community analysts and advocates who’ve had a hand in the federal strategy, Robertson and Moore take issue with a plan that emphasizes the economic opportunities in an effective climate response over the depth of the emergency humanity faces. “That is the goal,” they write. “Not to be left behind. To be able to compete in a changing world. To be a global economic leader. Nowhere is there mention of a crisis nor a situation that requires an emergency footing, an emergency response.”

On that basis, they conclude that the updated climate plan the government released in December assumes “there is climate change, not a climate emergency,” that “economic growth is the overarching goal even for climate policy”, that market players will solve the problem given the right price signals to respond to, and the fossil industry “must be protected and supported” through the adoption of a “‘fossil first’ climate action plan instead of a ‘climate first’ approach.” It envisions a new, low-carbon era that strengthens Canada’s existing “export-led, extraction-based economic model”, while assuming the country will become a hydrogen superpower.

“It is this problematic orientation together with a set of inadequate climate initiatives that will lead inevitably to more missed emission reduction targets and broken climate promises,” they write.

Robertson and Moore warn that:

• Ottawa’s plan to provide C$5,000 energy retrofit grants to up to 700,000 households will only deliver assistance to one in 10 Canadian homes by 2030 if it’s fully subscribed. The maximum grant will be too lean to support the deep energy retrofits the country’s existing building stock needs, and the published plan fails to quantify the greenhouse gas reductions the retrofits are supposed to deliver.

• To fulfill the government’s “oft-repeated promise” to plant two billion trees as a nature-based climate initiative, Canada would have to plant more than 600,000 per day for the next nine years. But “even if the tree planting numbers are achieved it won’t get us closer to the emission reduction targets,” since the government has failed to recognize that its managed forests are a net emitter of greenhouse gases due to excess logging.

• Unlike a growing number of jurisdictions around the world, Ottawa hasn’t set a deadline to ban the sale of internal combustion vehicles. More than a decade after a federal electric vehicle roadmap set a goal of at least 500,000 EVs on Canadian roads by the end of 2018, only 168,000 out of nearly 23 million cars, SUVs, and pick-up trucks are zero-emission. Consumer incentives for EV purchases are inadequate where they exist, Robertson and Moore say, and fleet electrification plans have had only a very limited impact so far.

• Renewable energy is scarcely mentioned in the federal plan, despite international reports calling for a five- to six-fold increase in renewables deployment. “There isn’t a section of the report devoted to developments in wind and solar power capacity,” Robertson and Moore write. “There are no targets for the expansion of clean renewable energy supply. There is no commentary about the role wind and solar can play in the shift to electrification of our overall energy system and no new funding programs to support such a transition. In fact, renewable solar and wind energy stands as one of the most glaring omissions in the climate plan.”

• Instead, the country relies on a power grid supplied primarily by hydropower and nuclear generation. But “Canada’s relatively low-carbon electrical energy system only meets about 17% of Canada’s total energy demand while the lion’s share—76%—is met by the high carbon-intensive oil and gas sector,” the two authors note. “The attention focused on impressive sounding year-over-year increases in renewable energy capacity has obscured the fact that the vast majority of our total energy demand is still being met by the burning of fossils fuels.” Additions to solar and wind capacity have “flat-lined” since 2015, even as the technologies have become more affordable.

• Most of the $964 million over four years allocated to renewable generating capacity will likely be earmarked for grid upgrades and expansions—an important investment, Robertson and Moore say, but not enough to constitute a renewable energy strategy. “Even if all those funds were to be used to support wind and solar energy generation projects the result would be very limited,” they write. And “the fact that the federal government is content, on the one hand, to make only indirect and very modest investments in the renewable sector while nationalizing a fossil fuel-enabling pipeline at an enormous public cost, on the other, speaks volumes about its enduring commitment to fossil energy and fossil capital.”

The 57-page report goes through a detailed critique of Canada’s carbon pricing and offsets system, lists the hurdles the government can expect to face with its hydrogen, CCUS, and nuclear commitments, and casts the overall strategy as a “wash of pale green” that will allow Canada’s mining sector to meet surging global demand for the raw materials behind the renewable energy transition. “Canada’s mining sector is primed to meet the increasing demand,” Robertson and Moore write, and “the Liberals want to ensure Canada’s mining giants are allowed to explore, extract, and expand,” based on a federal mining strategy that says very little about a constructive role for the minerals sector in the fight against climate change.

“The mining strategy identified a number of areas for action, but environmental stewardship and climate action weren’t high on the priority list,” the two authors say. “Instead, it was the usual big business nostrums: Streamline regulations, provide more tax and fiscal incentives, provide land access, increase public funding for geoscience mining supports, enable infrastructure needs in regions of high mineral development potential, open up more northern, remote, and isolated areas, and attract more foreign investment.”

They contrast those “clear demands” with the “more tentative and only vaguely aspirational” commitments in the climate plan: to “study recycling capabilities”, “encourage industry” to plan for climate change, and “recommend best practices” for a range of environmental problems.

Taken as a whole, “the problem with the government climate plan is more than the inadequacy of particular initiatives or even the glaring omissions,” Robertson and Moore conclude. “The flaws in the central logic of the plan are what jeopardizes our future. Instead of driving down fossil demand and replacing it with renewables, the government’s plan tries to convince us that Canada can achieve net-zero status and keep growing GDP by pricing carbon, incentivizing carbon intensity reduction technologies, and investing in fossil fuel hydrogen, modular nuclear, and carbon storage.”

But along the way, “Canada’s Paris targets retreat out of reach and net-zero 2050 seems more of a delusion to keep the fossil fires burning. The fossil fuel industries’ changing game plan from outright denial to delay and doubt and now clambering on board the net-zero bandwagon has strong greenwashing support in Ottawa.”

The alternative, the two authors say, would be for Ottawa to commit to deep decarbonization, climate justice, and social and economic transformation, and recalibrate federal tax, fiscal, and energy policy to “focus on both the supply side and the demand side” of the energy sector.



in Auto & Alternative Vehicles, Buildings, Canada, CCS & Negative Emissions, Climate & Society, Climate Impacts & Adaptation, Community Climate Finance, Demand & Distribution, Demand & Efficiency, Ending Emissions, Energy / Carbon Pricing & Economics, Forests & Deforestation, Fossil Fuels, Hydrogen, Hydropower, Jurisdictions, Nuclear, Oil & Gas, Renewable Energy, Solar, Supply Chains & Consumption, Wind

The latest climate news and analysis, direct to your inbox

Subscribe

Related Posts

Mike Mozart/Flickr
Ending Emissions

BP Predicts Faster Oil and Gas Decline as Clean Energy Spending Hits $1.1T in 2022

January 31, 2023
324
Gina Dittmer/PublicDomainPictures
Canada

Canada Needs Oil and Gas Emissions Cap to Hit 2030 Goal: NZAB

January 31, 2023
196
CONFENIAE
Ending Emissions

Ecuador’s Amazon Drilling Plan Shows Need for Fossil Non-Proliferation Treaty

January 31, 2023
61

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

Mike Mozart/Flickr

BP Predicts Faster Oil and Gas Decline as Clean Energy Spending Hits $1.1T in 2022

January 31, 2023
324
Sam Balto/YouTube

Elementary School’s Bike Bus Brings ‘Sheer Joy’ to Portland Neighbourhood

October 16, 2022
259
Lucio Santos/flickr

Canadian Banks Increased Fossil Investment in 2021, Report Card Shows

November 27, 2022
115
EcoAnalytics

Albertans Want a Just Transition, Despite Premier’s Grumbling

January 23, 2023
324
United Nations

Salvage of $20B ‘Floating Time Bomb’ Delayed by Rising Cost of Oil Tankers

January 27, 2023
122
/Pikrepo

Four Decades of Research Show Gas Stoves as ‘Overlooked’ Risk to Indoor Air, Child Health

December 7, 2020
1k

Recent Posts

Gina Dittmer/PublicDomainPictures

Canada Needs Oil and Gas Emissions Cap to Hit 2030 Goal: NZAB

January 31, 2023
196
CONFENIAE

Ecuador’s Amazon Drilling Plan Shows Need for Fossil Non-Proliferation Treaty

January 31, 2023
61
Ken Teegardin www.SeniorLiving.Org/flickr

Virtual Power Plants Hit an ‘Inflection Point’

January 31, 2023
125
/snappy goat

Rainforest Carbon Credits from World’s Biggest Provider are ‘Largely Worthless’, Investigation Finds

January 31, 2023
94
Victorgrigas/wikimedia commons

World Bank Climate Reforms Too ‘Timid and Slow,’ Critics Warn

January 31, 2023
42
Doc Searls/Twitter

Guilbeault Could Intervene on Ontario Greenbelt Development

January 31, 2023
132
Next Post

Loss of Arctic sea ice can spoil French wine harvest

The Energy Mix - The climate news you need

Copyright 2023 © Energy Mix Productions Inc. All rights reserved.

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

Proudly partnering with…

scf_withtagline
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}