While politicians tear their shirts over the carbon tax, climate change is accelerating and Canada is far from the pollution reduction target to which it committed.
• Also read: The carbon tax: an easy scapegoat for an opportunist politician
• Also read: Towards the end of the carbon tax: Quebec penalized
By signing the Paris Climate Accord in 2015, Ottawa promised to reduce the country’s emissions by 40% by 2030, compared to 2005. But the country has only reduced them by 8%, according to estimates 2023 from the Climate Institute.
Justin Leroux, of HEC Montreal, warns that it would be worse if Ottawa abandoned its carbon pricing mechanism: “We are already not reaching our targets and then we would ensure that we really have no chance.”
Especially since “we are not discussing the multiple ways to achieve our targets and reduce our emissions,” laments economist Andrew Leach, professor at the University of Alberta.
Because a conservative government of Pierre Poilievre will not replace the carbon tax with a mechanism ambitious enough to give better results, warns Matto Mildenberger, of the University of California.
A plan with no future
“Our common sense plan uses technology and not taxes to reduce both emissions and the cost of living,” promises the Conservative leader. He believes in particular that Canada “could produce barrels [de pétrole] cleaner than any other country” thanks to carbon capture and storage.
Mr. Mildenberger summarizes: “Canada will continue to depend on the fossil fuel industry which has no future, and will allow China and the United States to dominate the energy industry of the future.”
And, even if Canada only accounts for 2% of global emissions, it must set an example by adopting ambitious climate policies, argues Mr. Leroux.
“If a leading rich country like Canada does not make the effort to have a carbon tax, it will be easy for other countries that are in less favorable situations not to make an effort either” , he warns.
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