From Ottawa to Victoria, both on the federal and provincial political scene, the climate ambition of political party leaders is cooling. The Conservatives’ aversion to carbon pricing is legendary, but now this proven tool for reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions is now deserted even in the progressive ranks of the New Democrats.
All in the name of the high cost of living. And under the cover of the claim of possible climate action at zero cost.
The Go Green coalition this week called on federal political parties to certify, with a view to an electoral campaign, that they will respect Quebec’s environmental achievements. The exit seemed, without saying it, directly aimed at the Conservative Party of Pierre Poilievre, for whom polls predict a strong parliamentary majority.
Respect for the ban on single-use plastic, the rejection of fossil fuel production, or even the funding promised for the Quebec tramway: several of the elements of the Quebec consensus listed by the coalition are at odds with the retrograde conservative political positions to which we must rely while waiting for an environmental platform.
This reminder of the inventory of measures necessary for a comprehensive climate approach was, however, just as appropriate for the New Democratic Party (NDP), whose leader, Jagmeet Singh, telegraphed his party’s abandonment of the federal carbon tax for which households are in return reimbursed.
The “burden” of the fight against global warming should fall on “major polluters” and not fall “on the shoulders of workers,” argues the leader of the federal NDP, like his counterparts in Manitoba and Saskatchewan . In British Columbia, Prime Minister David Eby, who is seeking re-election, announced that the province would waive its own carbon tax if the federal obligation to price pollution was lifted by a Poilievre government.
Relieving the pocketbooks of taxpayers (and voters) now supersedes climate goals, on both the left and the right of the political spectrum. An inequality for which Justin Trudeau was partly responsible by opening a breach in his carbon pricing and by himself evoking the tax burden.
Although it does not apply to Quebec, which has its Carbon Exchange, the federal fee, combined with the cap and trade system imposed on large emitters, is essential to reducing greenhouse gases. Together, the two measures will reduce them by 28% to 62% by 2030. The climate fight is collective and knows no borders. The pretext for reviewing the tools is tenuous.
Because although the financial impact of carbon pricing on households is debated – a corrected report from the Parliamentary Budget Officer did not put an end to it – the real and substantial cost of climate change has been quantified.
Its damage will amount to $25 billion next year, according to the Climate Institute of Canada, which estimates that Canadians are already suffering a loss of $720 in their average annual income.
An exponentially higher bill for the victims of increasing natural disasters, from Quebec, with its tornadoes and floods, to the Prairies, with its repeated forest fires. Insurance costs are reaching records, when companies do not outright refuse to cover the damage. A “cost of living” that the Conservatives and New Democrats exclude from the equation.
As for the NDP’s priority of making the biggest polluters pay, it ignores the grim assessment of the carbon footprint of Canadians themselves. And the fact that the transport (22%), buildings (13%) and electricity (7%) sectors exceed the share of pollution for which oil and gas exploitation is responsible (31%). Forcing a change in behavior not only from industry, but also from citizens, by imposing a carbon price, is essential.
The federal NDP evokes a shift towards a carbon exchange offering greater certainty of GHG reduction and better concealing its unpopular costs for the taxpayer, but this type of measure is also generally less effective (from 30% to 60%) and successful (from 50% to 70%) than a tax.
Impassive in the face of these serial natural disasters or fatalistic in the face of global warming, Canadians are reinforcing this political withdrawal. Unless they allowed themselves to be convinced, like the NDP politicians, by the hype of the Conservatives. In one year, the share of citizens concerned about the climate (62%) has fallen by 14 points. Nearly three-quarters of respondents to a recent Abacus survey were primarily concerned about the cost of living, ahead of the fight for the environment.
There was a time not so long ago when progressive politicians would have led the way in competing for climate ambition rather than giving in to the conservative electoral threat.