No Matter Which Way You Look at It, Carney Has Abandoned Climate | The Walrus

"F or the first few months of Mark Carney's prime ministerial tenure, Canada's climate community of advocacy groups, think tanks, journalists, and scientists held their judgement-and their breath. A former United Nations special envoy on climate action and finance was now running the country; surely, that was a good thing. But the moment he took office, he stopped talking about emissions. Where was this going, exactly?"

"And so, we got our first clue (or was it a red flag?): the Building Canada Act, which raced through Parliament's spring session to become law within two months of Carney's victory. The act envisioned a self-reliant Canada building its way out of US dependence. Industrial megaprojects "in the national interest" would be sped to fruition through a Major Projects Office."

"From a climate perspective, it all resembled a national Rorschach blot taking shape before our eyes: those who wanted to believe in Climate Carney could focus on the wind power, nuclear, and critical mineral projects, among the first announced in September; others beheld fossil fuel expansion, in the form of increasing liquified natural gas (LNG) exports, and the rising drumbeat of an oil pipeline to British Columbia's north coast. That pattern was repeated in November, when Carney announced the second tranche of major projects."

Mark Carney assumed prime ministerial office with high climate expectations but immediately reduced public emphasis on emissions. Political priorities initially focused on confronting the United States rather than climate policy. The Building Canada Act accelerated large industrial projects and established a Major Projects Office to fast-track initiatives framed as national interest. Early projects included wind, nuclear, and critical mineral developments alongside plans to expand liquified natural gas exports and an oil pipeline to British Columbia. The simultaneous promotion of clean and conventional energy created unclear signals about the net impact on national emissions and long-term climate commitments.

Read at The Walrus