Canada Is a Test of Climate Ambition

  • Date: 09-Apr-2021
  • Source: Asharq AL-awsat
  • Sector:Oil & Gas
  • Country:Gulf
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Canada Is a Test of Climate Ambition

Angel Gurria, preparing to step down after 15 years as secretary general of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, had parting words of advice as the world considers its post-Covid recovery: “Put a big fat price on carbon.”

Canada is already there.

The question of how the largest fossil fuel producers tackle the existential shift to a greener future is crucial for the rest of the world, too. Last year, Canada became the first of these to really ramp up efforts with an ambitious climate plan, including a significant increase in its carbon levy to help slash emissions and meet its commitment under the Paris Agreement. It's a real-life green policy experiment in a country with plenty of vocal lobbies in its resource-rich provinces. The Supreme Court recently ruled in favor of the federal plan to tackle the “existential threat” of climate change and against recalcitrant regions that claimed the tax exceeded Ottawa's jurisdiction.

Making good a 2015 campaign pledge, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in 2016 announced a carbon pricing plan. It allowed provinces to develop their own mechanisms to make polluters pay, be they consumers or heavy industry. He later introduced a federal backstop plan, covering those with insufficient or no