Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said Tuesday his government has to pivot from his predecessor\u2019s environmental policy because the country needs to capitalise on its immense oil and gas reserves, due to heightened geopolitical uncertainty and economic sluggishness.<\/p>\n
Furthermore, Mr Carney said Canadian climate-change policy needs to be a collective effort, and not a divisive force that pushes people in resource-rich Alberta toward separation.<\/p>\n
Mr Carney\u2019s remarks were in an address to Canadians via a YouTube post, days before the Alberta government is scheduled to unveil its formal proposal plan for a new pipeline to ship about one million barrels a day of crude oil to the Pacific coast \u2013 where it would be loaded onto tankers bound for Asian buyers.<\/p>\n
Mr Carney\u2019s bid to accelerate resource projects and potentially back new crude-carrying pipelines prompted the resignation of Canada\u2019s former environment minister from politics. Mr Carney\u2019s predecessor, former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, made the fight against climate change a policy priority, upsetting citizens and business leaders in commodity-rich Alberta.<\/p>\n
Alberta politicians contend Mr Trudeau\u2019s policies thwarted economic development in the province, and has helped provide momentum toward a separation movement in Alberta. The province will hold a referendum on October 19 about whether to proceed with a formal vote on separating from Canada.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe climate plan we inherited from the previous government was well-intentioned and well-suited for the times,\u201d Mr Carney said in a YouTube video. \u201cWe can\u2019t afford to restrain the growth of an important part of our energy mix, oil and gas, to meet a short-term\u201d environmental goal.<\/p>\n
Mr Carney has already reversed some of Mr Trudeau\u2019s environmental policies, such as a cap on carbon emissions from the oil-and-gas sector.<\/p>\n
The changes underway \u201cwill mean that our [carbon] emissions will be higher in the next few years than they were projected to be under the previous government\u2019s plan,\u201d Mr Carney said. \u201cBut in my judgment, that plan was not sustainable over the long term. It would have been too expensive for Canadians, Canadians who are already struggling with affordability.\u201d The shift prompted Canada\u2019s former environment minister, Steven Guilbeault, to step down as a cabinet minister late last year, and from politics last month. \u201cI have come to the conclusion that it is time for me to pursue my fight for environmental protections and the fight against climate change in a different way,\u201d Guilbeault said.<\/p>\n
In his YouTube post, Mr Carney said Canada would aim to produce oil and gas \u201cin the most environmentally sustainable ways, and export them to where they will make a difference.\u201d Mr Carney has said his government\u2019s approval for Alberta\u2019s proposed new crude-oil pipeline is contingent on the construction of a carbon-capture and storage project that oil companies warn is not financially feasible without sizeable taxpayer-backed support.<\/p>\n
The Canadian leader also warned the fallout from the conflict in Iran, which drove crude-oil prices sharply higher, \u201cwill be with us for a long time.\u201d Mr Carney said Canada stands to benefit from uncertainty about energy supply, and the possibility of future disruptions in the Strait of Hormuz.<\/p>\n
Mr Carney\u2019s main policy priority has focused on a rewiring of a Canadian economy that leaned too heavily on trade with the US to drive growth. Mr Carney has argued that trade-policy uncertainty in the White House and hefty US tariffs on key Canadian industrial sectors compels a shift to build out new trade corridors to sell more Canadian-made goods to Asia and Europe.<\/p>\n
Mr Carney added the previous environmental plan would \u201chave been too divisive for our country. In the current environment, the old plan was an open opportunity for those people who wish to pull Canada apart, both at home and from abroad.\u201d <\/p>\n
The Wall St Journal<\/p>\n