OTTAWA — Canada’s reputation as a global climate leader took a hit Tuesday when it was awarded the satirical “fossil of the day” title at the UN Climate Conference in Brazil.
The Climate Action Network, which has handed out the satirical award since 1999, said Canada was singled out for the first time in more than a decade for “flushing years of climate action down the drain.”
While Prime Minister Mark Carney on Monday said Canada respects its commitments under the Paris agreement and is committed to achieving them, that was the first time in months the government issued a clear statement on its climate policy.
Before Monday, Carney and his ministers had been vague on Canada’s Paris commitments, while the federal budget opened a path to doing away with the government’s plan to require upstream oil and gas operations to reduce their emissions to 35 per cent below 2019 levels by 2030.
In a media statement, Caroline Brouillette, executive director of Climate Action Network Canada, said the world is taking notice of Canada’s backsliding on climate policy.
The federal budget also committed to reinforcing industrial carbon pricing policies as a cornerstone of the government’s climate plan, but it provided no details on how the policy would be strengthened.
