Funding for Fossil Fuels Could Derail Canada's New Plan to Reduce Emissions

The following paragraphs are from an op-ed originally published in The Hill Times on May 4, 2022, and are reprinted below with permission. The full op-ed is available at The Hill Times' website.

Canadian climate news this past month has been a bit of a rollercoaster.

Just over a month ago, the federal government released the 2030 Emissions Reduction Plan, the most comprehensive Canadian climate plan to date, and the 2022 budget, scarcely a week apart. That same week the urgent call of the world’s top scientists reached a fever pitch with the latest IPCC report charting the narrow pathways available for action to avoid irreversible climate change impacts. Meanwhile, on the eve of the budget release came the federal approval of Bay du Nord, Norwegian oil company Equinor’s deep water drilling project off the coast of Newfoundland which has the potential to produce up to 300 million barrels of fossil fuel resources.

The government aims to use their recent climate plan and budget as the basis to tackle climate change over the next few critical years. However, subsidies to the fossil fuel industry and new production projects threaten to undermine progress towards climate goals. 

Read the full op-ed at The Hill Times.