Liberals offer mostly platitudes on transition to renewable energy

Under the previous Conservative administration, Canada’s energy strategy was whatever the oilpatch wanted—or more precisely what foreign-owned energy multinationals requested. We had no plan for carbon pricing, and Stephen Harper was content to hitch our economic wagon to fossil fuels. Talk of a National Energy Program was quickly dismissed. With omnibus budget bills C-38 and C-45, Harper decimated the environmental assessment process, and abdicated EA responsibility on pipeline proposals to the National Energy Board. The goal was to get energy projects to “yes” and to remake Canada as a petro-state. In doing so, Harper irresponsibly tethered our economic growth to the whims of the global crude market while abdicating responsibility on climate to provinces and municipalities. Recently under the Liberals, we appeared to have some positive movement: the introduction of carbon pricing and the provinces agreeing to a Pan-Canadian Framework on Clean Growth and Climate Change. One may be tempted to conclude—as many foreign journalists have fawned—that Canada has now pulled itself out of a decade of regressive fossil fuel-championing energy policy after electing Justin Trudeau and a Liberal government. But closer examination reveals a more sobering truth: the Liberals have offered mostly platitudes and talking points on the transition to renewable energy, while climate disasters accelerate at an alarming pace. Instead of big ideas, we have more of the same. Under Trudeau, despite small steps to reduce oil-and-gas subsidies, we still import foreign oil to half the country while shipping out Canadian oil at lower prices to the U.S. market. We still lack the refineries needed to achieve energy sovereignty, and export our raw product—and the high-paying jobs that go with it—to international markets. Trudeau and his ministers are green-lighting the Kinder Morgan Trans Mountain pipeline project, celebrating the potential revival of the Keystone XL pipeline, and approving permits for GHG-emitting liquefied natural gas (LNG) plants on the pristine British Columbia coast. Under Trudeau, Canada still lags far behind other advanced democracies in its renewable energy targets. Leaders in Nordic countries are leapfrogging one another and lead the developed world with commitments to eliminate combustible engine vehicles by 2025 (Norway), and move to 100 per cent renewable energy before 2040 (Sweden). Back at home, our climate targets remain the woefully inadequate Harper-era targets of limiting our GHG emissions to no more than 30 per cent below 2005 levels by 2030. Environment and Climate Change Minister Catherine McKenna previously referred to this target as “the floor,” yet the Liberals now champion it as sufficient to meet our Paris Agreement commitments. It is far from sufficient. Climate scientists now believe the goal to keep global warming less than 1.5 C likely requires negative net CO2 emissions later this century if high global emissions continue in the near term. Updated GHG targets would allow all new energy projects and policy to be evaluated and coordinated under a finite cap. Canada led the world in Paris, yet Trudeau has thus far presented a fluffy platitude that both the economy and environment can go hand in hand. Of course, this would be true if we invested solely in clean tech, renewable energy, and energy efficiency, and took steps to boost the economy while driving down GHG emissions. But the prime minister’s words no longer apply to the Liberals’ pitiful climate non-plan. Canada still remains the only OECD country without a national energy strategy. On foreign investment in energy, the door was flung wide open to China by Harper with the Canada-China Foreign Investment Promotion and Protection Agreement (FIPA). Now, the Liberals are aggressively soliciting Chinese investment, which has led to questionable takeover approvals of Canadian companies by Chinese interests with muddy ownership. In the oilpatch, Chinese investors are funnelling fresh funds into Canadian energy companies in a takeover ramp-up that has largely escaped public notice. Nearly $2-billion from China has been invested in a series of deals since Ottawa imposed restrictions on buying by state-owned enterprises in 2012. All energy and tech takeovers must be scrutinized to the highest standard to avoid selling our sovereignty for a short-term economic boost. We must: immediately phase out fossil fuels and reverse the decision to maintain subsidies to the LNG industry through 2024; implement carbon fee and dividend to all CO2, methane, and other GHG emissions (this system delivers a carbon dividend to every Canadian, reducing both CO2 and poverty); phase out and ban coal-fired electrical generation plants; work with provinces to place a moratorium on horizontal fracking; rapidly invest in efficient public-transit systems; diversify our energy portfolio with wind, solar, geothermal, district energy, small-scale hydro, tidal and, where sustainable, biomass; create a Federal Ministry of Energy transition plan to coordinate the transition from a fossil fuel-based economy to one based on renewable energy; and invest heavily in improving the east-west electricity grid. The Conservatives are worrisome because they usually do what they say they will do. The Liberals should worry us more, because they rarely do what they have promised Canadians. Bruce Hyer is a biologist, deputy leader of the Green Party of Canada, and the former MP for Thunder Bay-Superior North, Ont.

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Liberals offer mostly platitudes on transition to renewable energy

Our climate targets remain the woefully inadequate Harper-era targets of limiting our GHG emissions to no more than 30 per cent below 2005 levels by 2030.

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