Much attention has been focused as the year draws to an end on vaccines and the role they will play in lowering the rate of COVID-19 cases. But perhaps not so much emphasis has been placed on the part climate change will play in the recovery, according to one expert.
Shawn McCarthy is a senior counsel at Sussex Strategy Group. He is also the president of the Canadian Committee for World Press Freedom. McCarthy tells the media this week the climate change issue will likely come to the forefront as 2021 wears on.
"The Liberals took some important steps late in the year towards its goal of making Canada a net-zero emitter of greenhouse gases (GHGs) by 2050," he says. "Most important was the updated climate plan that proposes to raise the federal carbon price to $170 a tonne by 2030 from $50 a tonne in 2022."
McCarthy pointed to efforts by Environment Minister Jonathan Wilkinson to enshrine the government’s goal of making Canada a net-zero emitter of greenhouse gases (GHGs) by 2050.
"However, " he cautions, "setting an ambitious 2050 target is one thing, meeting it is quite another."
McCarthy warns, "Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government is now at a critical juncture, even as he’s hemmed in by Conservative premiers who resist his climate-change agenda.
"To reach that more ambitious goal, the government will have to buttress its effort with a stimulus plan that plows tens of billions of dollars into clean-energy programs. But the Trudeau government will also have to go far beyond the frequently heard calls for public spending on high-profile energy projects.
"And while the heightened carbon price will put Canada on track to meet its current 2030 target, more will be required to exceed that medium-term goal and to achieve carbon-neutral status in just 30 years.
McCarthy concludes, "It will need the entire government to adopt a climate lens, as opposed to its current practice of creating boutique programs in departments such as Agriculture; Natural Resources; or Innovation, Science and Economic Development, while the rest of the bureaucracy carries on with business as usual."
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