National Newswatch

Leaders from low-carbon sectors descend on Ottawa for an attempted show of strength

May 29 2023 — Adam Radwanski — Executives from an array of low-carbon industries are attempting a show of strength on Parliament Hill this week, at a precarious point in Canada’s efforts to keep pace with the United States and other countries prioritizing low-carbon economic growth. Although representatives of specific sectors frequently show up in Ottawa to press members of Parliament for […]

Trudeau’s cabinet choices put the oil-and-gas sector on notice

Oct 27 2021 — Adam Radwanski — Justin Trudeau has fired a shot across the bow of Canada’s fossil fuel industry with the appointments of a pair of climate-focused ministers in his new cabinet. Steven Guilbeault, who before entering politics was one of Quebec’s most prominent environmentalists, is now in charge of Environment and Climate Change Canada. He can be expected to […]

Get past its baffling carbon-price proposal, and O’Toole’s climate plan is a step forward

Aug 16 2021 — Adam Radwanski — The introduction to the Conservatives’ new climate plan reads like their party is having an argument with itself. It derides the Liberal government’s carbon-pricing model as a “tax hike.” Then it recognizes that carbon pricing is “the most efficient way to reduce our emissions.” Then it circles back to familiar arguments against the policy it’s […]

Farmers offer Ottawa an olive branch with plans to fight climate change

Feb 23 2021 — Adam Radwanski — The federal government has been handed some much-needed suggestions for how to better engage the agricultural sector in cutting Canada’s greenhouse gas emissions despite tensions with farmers over carbon pricing. In a prebudget submission being publicly released on Tuesday, the nascent organization Farmers for Climate Solutions – a coalition of agricultural and environmental groups – […]

How Canada should respond to Joe Biden’s Keystone XL decision

Jan 19 2021 — Adam Radwanski — Joe Biden is poised to begin his presidency with a wake-up call for Canadians who expect him to compromise his climate agenda in the name of diplomacy. The president-elect’s apparent plan to cancel the Keystone XL pipeline expansion as one of his first actions after Wednesday’s inauguration, laid out in leaked transition documents, shouldn’t come […]

On EV policy, Trudeau’s government has a pitch for Biden

Dec 17 2020 — Adam Radwanski — After Joe Biden takes office next month, one of the earliest cross-border priorities for Justin Trudeau’s Liberals will be gauging the next U.S. president’s interest in setting continental quotas for electric-vehicle sales. For months, there has been speculation about Mr. Trudeau’s government imposing a zero-emissions vehicle mandate, addressing auto manufacturers’ perceived failure to meet demand […]

With their carbon-price surprise, the Liberals finally show the courage of their climate-change convictions

Dec 11 2020 — Adam Radwanski — Justin Trudeau’s Liberals have boldly, if belatedly, picked a lane on the road to meeting Canada’s climate-change targets. For five years after their Paris Agreement commitment to cut greenhouse-gas emissions 30 per cent by 2030, it was never clear how that was supposed to happen – not with the government mostly dabbling in green policies […]

Freeland’s mini-budget takes strides toward a green recovery – with hints of the heavy lifting still to come

Nov 30 2020 — Adam Radwanski — Justin Trudeau’s Liberals are starting with the low-hanging fruit, in their bid to use the recovery from COVID-19 to accelerate the transition to a low-emissions economy. The two biggest new commitments to climate-related spending in Monday’s fall economic statement – $2.6-billion for energy-efficiency retrofits to Canadians’ homes, and $150-million in new money over the next […]

Environment Minister says Trudeau’s government is taking ‘great interest’ in carbon tariffs

Oct 19 2020 — Adam Radwanski — The federal government is opening the door to implementing carbon tariffs, as a way of pricing industrial greenhouse gas emissions without hurting domestic companies. Environment Minister Jonathan Wilkinson responded to a Globe and Mail query about carbon border adjustments (CBAs) – a method of applying carbon pricing to imports that has recently gained traction elsewhere, […]

New report offers unexpected optimism that Canada could meet its 2030 climate targets

Sep 29 2020 — Adam Radwanski — As the federal government prepares to roll out climate-related spending commitments as part of its economic recovery strategy, a report being released on Tuesday suggests that Canada’s emissions reductions targets could be achieved at a surprisingly manageable cost. Produced by the new Institute for Sustainable Finance at Queen’s University, the study estimates that meeting the […]

Courtesy of Ford, Canada’s EV moment has suddenly arrived. Are governments ready for it?

Sep 27 2020 — Adam Radwanski — Suddenly, Canada has a foothold in one of the world’s fastest-growing and most pivotal clean-technology sectors. Only days ago, being a player any time soon in making electric vehicles seemed preposterous. Ontario’s manufacturing heartland, despite its proud automaking history, had been passed over for new investments in the cars expected to take over global fleets. […]

Are net-zero emissions pledges, from Justin Trudeau and oil executives alike, a new form of greenwashing?

Feb 18 2020 — Adam Radwanski — When Justin Trudeau promised during last fall’s election campaign that his Liberals would put Canada on course for net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, it may have seemed surprisingly bold. Other countries had made similar commitments, but most were much lower emitters than Canada, without economies in which fossil fuel extraction plays anywhere near as […]

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