lLast week, Britain did something all too rare: it chose to lead by supporting science and prioritizing public safety. The Labor government has said it will ban new oil and gas licenses in the North Sea, tighten windfall tax and speed up the phase-out of fossil fuel subsidies.
These are not symbolic gestures. They are a recognition that the global energy system is changing and that mature economies must change with it.
And they came the same week as Catastrophic floods sweep across Southeast Asiakilling more than 1,000 people and displacing more than a million people. The real need to transition away from fossil fuels has never been more pressing.
But it was precisely at the moment when Great Britain stepped forward that Canada stepped back.
Ottawa signed a new Memorandum of Understanding with Alberta to support a new oil sands pipeline that would boost fossil fuel production. There will be a deal methane retention rulescancel limiting oil and gas emissions And liberate the province from the rules of clean electricity. All this happens as leaders raise environmental assessment requirements For major projects, preparing to weaken greenwashing laws and suspension of Canadian mandate to sell electric vehicles. MP Stephen Guilbeault resigned from Mark Carney's cabinet rather than defend the retreat.
The contrast could not be starker: as climate impacts intensify and the economy turns, Canada is strengthening the very industries that are driving the crisis.
Supporters insist the Prime Minister is being pragmatic: expanding oil and gas production is simply “realistic”. On the contrary, it is a distorted view that ignores the reality of catastrophic flooding in Southeast Asia and Sri Lanka; growing losses from drought and heat, fires and storms.
Government and industry are pointing to carbon capture and storage (CCS) as a technology solution that could allow Canada to continue expanding oil production. But CCS has lagged the market for decades, despite billions in government funding, as documented International Energy Agency.
Even if the CCS system worked perfectly, it would only account for production emissions, which account for roughly 20% of the climate pollution produced by a barrel. The remaining 80% comes from burning oil, according to IPCC Life Cycle Assessments. Expanding sales channels by pointing to CCS is like telling a lung cancer patient to smoke more but use filter cigarettes.
At the international level, the obligations are crystal clear. At COP28 in Dubai in 2023, Canada, the UK and 190 countries agreed to transition away from fossil fuels for the first time. You don't “phase out” something by creating more of it. Pipeline allowing 1m additional barrels per day is pushing Canada in the opposite direction of what it has already promised.
At the same time, other countries are working together to speed up the phase-out. Eighty countries backed the development of a roadmap for phasing out fossil fuels at recent climate change talks in Brazil. Eighteen countries are currently participating in the dialogue to develop Fossil Fuel Treaty. Colombia and the Netherlands will co-host the first global diplomatic conference on the fossil fuel phase-out next April – the world's first such meeting dedicated to this goal.
Leadership emerges. Alliances are being formed. Momentum is growing. Meanwhile, Canada appears to be turning back the clock, despite opposition from indigenous groups who vow to protect the Great Bear Sea from oil tankers.
Nation states are increasingly choosing sides: ignore science and rising floods and fires, or choose “Life is more important than death,” as Gustavo Petro, Colombia's president, said while discussing why the fifth-largest coal exporter has committed to ending fossil fuel expansion and is working to develop a Fossil Fuel Treaty. Scientists now tell us that air pollution, caused mainly by fossil fuels, killing 5 million people a year while the world experiences one death every minute due to deadly heatA Phasing out fossil fuels literally means choosing life over death..
The UK deserves credit for its decision: leadership shapes markets and changes society's expectations. This year, investment in renewable energy has doubled that of fossil fuels. In 2024, China will install more solar power than the rest of the world. the world together. China and Britain are not dreaming. They react to reality. The world is turning a corner, but the transition is not inevitable, and it will not be fast enough to avoid the worst impacts of the climate crisis unless the expansion of new fossil fuels is curbed.
Carney built his reputation by warning that climate inaction threatens economic stability and that finance must keep pace with the reality of a warming world. Instead, he is overseeing decisions that deepen Canada's dependence on an industry whose expansion directly contributes to the natural disasters already devastating local communities.
Canada talks about how important it is to skate where the puck will be, not where it is now. But now the country is going backwards.
