The Better Ideas Show brought together more than three dozen guests during Prime Minister Mark Carney’s Canada Investment Summit to talk about nation-building projects that are practical, affordable, and ready to build the new climate economy that will diversify our trade and protect Canada’s sovereignty.
Canada is lagging behind international jurisdictions like the European Union, United Kingdom, Australia, and Asia in implementing climate-related financial policies and disclosure requirements, says Julie Segal, senior manager of climate finance at Environmental Defence Canada. And despite the government’s goal of diversifying trade partners, the financial system remains tied to United States standards, a “deadweight” hindering progress toward a clean economy.
As the Mark Carney government courted international investors for major infrastructure projects across Canada, Segal told The Energy Mix it’s fascinating to see this government prioritize building relationships with non-U.S. trade partners, while ignoring the fact that a lot of the infrastructure on our financial system differs so thoroughly from these other jurisdictions.
A number of climate-related financial policies have been proposed in Canada, but one of the main excuses for not moving forward has been that our capital markets are so integrated with the U.S. that we would create a disadvantage for Canadian companies if we forged ahead. That line of thinking is “silly,” Segal says, given that Canada is developing new, strong trade relationships with other international partners.
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Segal also warns that big capital is profit-driven, not sustainability-driven. So the burden rests on Canada and specifically the Canadian government to prioritize clean projects and stop expanding oil and gas, rather than waiting for foreign investors to force change that will abate the climate crisis.
“The BlackRocks, the Vanguards, the huge trillion-dollar asset managers and owners are not motivated by sustainability… they’re profit-oriented organizations,” she said. So “it’s up to us to consider the projects that we’re putting forward.”
