Of course we need to achieve net-zero by 2050: it’s a chemical necessity for the atmosphere. But this is hardly a goal that your average person can see and touch and wrap their arms around.

Compounding the difficulty is that 2050 is a quarter century away. What do the signposts of success look like between now and then? How do we make sure we’re on track? Where do we course-correct if we’re not?

One way that countries have tried to define progress is by measuring the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions.

The landmark Paris Agreement, signed a decade ago, aims to hold the increase in the global average temperature to well below 2°C above pre-industrial levels and to pursue efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels. Countries determine themselves what contributions they should make to achieve the aims of the agreement. These plans, called nationally determined contributions (NDCs), are required to be “ambitious efforts” toward “achieving the purpose of this Agreement” and to “represent a progression over time.” The contributions are to be set every five years and registered with the United Nations.

Similar to many other nations, Canada has enshrined its Paris Agreement commitments in a national law, the Canada Net-Zero Emissions Accountability Act, adopted by Parliament in 2021. Under this act, the federal government has rolled out its Emissions Reduction Plan that it regularly updates.

For Canadians, decarbonization is a patriotic act

Unsurprisingly, given that the global community has consciously structured the climate change issue around these yearly measurements of emissions reduction, that’s the primary lens through which the public now views the discussion. A significant proportion of climate change media headlines relate to emissions targets being met, or not met.

Don’t get me wrong: I think this Paris Agreement approach has been useful. Like Canada, most countries in the world have methodically catalogued every scrap of carbon emissions and created policy architectures to start knocking them back. That’s led to a substantial reduction in projected future warming – close to one full degree Celsius by century’s end.

But a decade on from the Paris Agreement, I don’t think that communicating to the public the success or failure of climate progress in terms of megatonnes of carbon reduced – putting this in the metaphorical window every chance we get – is the best we can do.

For one thing, and as I’ve already observed above, it’s not really comprehensible or tangible for most people.

For another, there are better, more compelling stories of success or failure to tell. Let’s take electric vehicles as one example. When the Paris Agreement was signed, electric vehicles were less than 1% of new vehicle sales around the world. Today, they are more than 25% and rising fast. The boom in electric vehicles is actually resulting in less demand for oil and less greenhouse gas emissions. The International Energy Agency, for example, pegged the total number of barrels of oil displaced by EV adoption at more than 1.3 million barrels per day in 2024. The agency expects that number to rise to more than five million barrels per day by 2030.

Most compelling of all, EVs are just better machines than gasoline-powered cars. Anyone who drives one loves them and saves money in the long term (especially when the price of oil skyrockets because of the type of international conflicts we’re seeing at the moment).

Heat pumps are another example. In 2015, globally, heat pumps were generally a marginal technology. Now: heat pumps outsell gas furnaces in the United States and in many markets. And because they are more efficient than natural gas furnaces, and run by electricity, they are starting to measurably reduce carbon emissions.

A fork in the road for the Canadian climate change discussion

The rate of uptake of electric vehicles and heat pumps is an extremely important measure of climate change progress. As opposed to emission reductions, they are visible, tangible things.

So as a way of refocusing the climate change discussion in a positive direction, the Canadian Climate Institute is going to start tracking these indicators of progress such as EV and heat pump sales data in the months ahead.

This is also a way of holding governments to account. The recent announcement by Prime Minister Mark Carney that the federal government is aiming for 75% of new cars sold by 2035 to be EVs is a clear commitment. And it’s an opportunity to ensure that the package of policies he has released will get us to that goal.

As I’ve said before in this space, the climate change discussion is a marathon, not a sprint. It has evolved over decades and will continue to do so. The way we talk about the issue in order to ensure that it gets the attention it needs in a volatile world requires constant reinvention to ensure that we’re connecting with our audiences.

Rick Smith is president of the Canadian Climate Institute, the co-author of two bestselling books on the effects of pollution on human health, and the executive producer of Plastic People, a 2024 documentary chronicling the damage done by microplastics in the human body.

The post What does climate change progress look like? appeared first on Corporate Knights.

I’ve never bought a Canadian flag before. But I surprised myself when the daily Trump “51st state” insults ignited a desire in me to fly our country’s colours. Given how long the flag and flagpole I wanted were out of stock at Canadian Tire, it seems that many other Canadians felt the same.

This month’s avalanche of “year in review” articles on the Trump presidency (one down, three to go!) was a reminder of just how unprecedented this past year has been. And judging by the reaction to the prime minister’s speech in Davos, much of the Western world has had similar feelings.

Twelve months ago, would any of us have guessed that the very existence of our country would be regularly belittled by our alleged closest ally – our national sovereignty threatened by a late-night social media post? Or that some of our key industries, like steel and cars, would be fighting for their survival because of crushing Trump-imposed tariffs, or that European countries – NATO members – would be moving troops to Greenland in a not-so-subtle attempt to dissuade a U.S. invasion, with Canada under pressure to join too?

In 2026, there is every indication that Trump’s unhinged behaviour will get worse, not better.

He’s already referring to the Canada-U.S.-Mexico free trade agreement (CUSMA) – the renegotiation of which kicks off this year – as “irrelevant” to the United States and has targeted the Canadian automobile industry for extinction. He seems deadly serious about undermining the independence of the U.S. Federal Reserve and using his politicized Department of Justice to silence any criticisms.

Nothing about this is “business as usual.” And it has prompted an unprecedented degree of anxiety: roughly three-quarters of Canadians now believe the United States poses an economic threat, and 53% say it poses a national security threat as well.

Climate change policy is caught right in the middle of all of this.

As he explained at length in a speech at the United Nations in September of last year, Trump believes that climate change is a “con job” and that renewable energy, such as wind and solar, is a “scam” that should be eliminated. Instead, he is focused on dramatically expanding oil and gas production and recently demonstrated he is even prepared to forcibly depose foreign leaders to achieve this.

2025 was defined by uncertainty on climate policy in Canada that needs quick resolution

Meanwhile, in the rest of the world, decarbonization is accelerating, not slowing down. We’ve seen it with electric vehicles, with renewable power, with global investment in clean technologies and with carbon border tariffs, to name just a few. And these trends are accelerating in the countries Canada needs to diversify its trade and strengthen its economic prospects.

Bottom line: things powered with fossil fuels are the technologies of the past. (And I mean this literally: sales of gasoline-powered cars peaked globally in 2018.) Things powered by electricity are the technologies of the future. Those countries that produce the building blocks of a decarbonized economy – including critical minerals, batteries, clean electricity, and electrical machines like heat pumps and EVs – will prosper. Those that don’t will be left behind.

The challenge for Canada is to escape the evil tractor beam of Trump’s bad ideas. To set a course of our own for the benefit of all Canadians.

Doing everything we can to decarbonize Canada isn’t just something we’re doing to reduce emissions. It’s a contribution to a better future for our country.

Yes, we need to deal with the clear threats posed by Trump in the short term, but at the same time we need to lay track for a decarbonized economy that is rapidly gaining momentum.

Decarbonization is an act of patriotism.

In amongst the recent “Trump year in review” media this month was a healthy dose of polling. Trump’s popularity is down. Way down. It turns out a U.S. electorate that supported him in hopes that he’d make their lives more affordable isn’t warming to his quixotic and destabilizing foreign policy interventions.

I don’t know exactly when, but sometime in the next few years – at this rate, starting with November’s U.S. midterm elections – the forces of MAGA are going to start losing. At that point, the damage from climate change will be more evident than ever, and the economic gravity of cheaper solar, batteries and EVs will be impossible to resist. Climate action will ramp up even stronger than before.

Canada needs strong climate policy to be competitive in countries beyond the U.S.

Our goal has to be to ensure that we have leapfrogged the United States by then to ensure that our economy is positioned to prosper.

We see the first inklings of what’s possible in this regard with recent news that the Trump administration’s unlawful quashing of New England offshore wind projects is increasing investment interest in Canadian projects. And the recent deal with China on EV tariffs is being positioned by our federal government as the first move in a strategy for Canada to build North American leadership in electric vehicles: smart.

In 2026, arguments for climate progress need to keep these global dynamics front and centre. The transition to a cleaner economy isn’t just the answer to the atmosphere’s chemical challenges, but to Canada’s economic ones as well.

In short, decarbonization should come wrapped in a Canadian flag.

Rick Smith is president of the Canadian Climate Institute, the co-author of two bestselling books on the effects of pollution on human health, and the executive producer of Plastic People, a 2024 documentary chronicling the damage done by microplastics in the human body.

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The year started and ended with considerable uncertainty, but for different reasons. On the front end of the year, this was due to the federal election, where – depending on the outcome – a wholesale dismantling of Canada’s policy architecture was a real possibility.

But after a come-from-behind victory by Mark Carney’s Liberals, it became clear that the question ahead was a different one: what will Canada’s climate-policy approach include and how effective will it be at reducing emissions and supporting competitiveness in an era of disruption spawned by Donald Trump?

As the year comes to a close, we have a better idea of what some of that is likely to include: stronger industrial carbon pricing, stronger methane rules for oil and gas, finalized clean-electricity tax incentives, a climate investment taxonomy, support for critical minerals and more. But a fair number of these policy wins are still marked with ongoing uncertainty, including some of the most impactful on the list such as industrial carbon pricing.

Earlier in the year, my colleagues and I at the Canadian Climate Institute outlined a handful of top priorities the government could focus on to make meaningful policy progress. This was especially important given that our research showed that Canada was not going to be able to reach its 2030 emissions target and needed a course correction. That finding was confirmed this week by the federal government’s progress report on its climate plan.

Of the six policies we originally identified to get the country on the path to progress, three remain unfinished or uncertain.

Canada needs fast action on its new climate competitiveness strategy

The government has committed to strengthening industrial carbon pricing, but the details here will make or break this policy. Getting it right is especially important in light of the recent  memorandum of understanding with Alberta, which pushes any clarity on this out to April of next year.

The MOU agreement is vague on specific outcomes: it agrees to increase the minimum carbon credit price to $130 per tonne of emissions – roughly six times the current level – but it doesn’t define a timeline. To be credible, both governments need to agree that this price should be reached by 2030.

Already we’ve seen worrying signs. The ink was barely dry on the MOU when the Alberta government went tinkering with their carbon-pricing system to further weaken it, just one week after the signing.

On a more positive note, the federal government finalized stronger methane rules for the oil and gas sector. Action on methane is a no-brainer, representing some of the lowest-cost actions available. The feds and Alberta need to agree to an effective equivalency agreement to ensure that the level of reduction committed to by the federal government – 72% by 2030 – is achieved. But this is generally good policy news.

On clean electricity, the federal government is currently implementing its long-promised investment tax credits in legislation, which should be passed early next year. And while the government appeared to reaffirm its commitment to the Clean Electricity Regulations, the MOU again undermined that with a carve-out for Alberta.

That risks copy-cat requests from other provinces and a race to the bottom in other areas of climate policy. For the moment, we’re holding out hope that the two parties can negotiate something approaching equivalency on this file.

On electric vehicles, the government has paused its Electric Vehicle Availability Standard and consumer incentives, throwing into question one of the only policies Canada has to reduce emissions in the transportation sector.

Government has said that more information about the future of that policy should be coming soon, but the uncertainty has stymied EV sales in the country, which were previously rising steadily year over year. Maintaining a strong standard will help Canadians find better, more affordable vehicle options, while creating flexibility for vehicle manufacturers.

A fork in the road for the Canadian climate change discussion

The clearest case for progress has been with the federal government’s commitment to implement sustainable investment guidelines – also known as the climate taxonomy. The government has tasked the Canadian Climate Institute, working with Business Future Pathways, to do the technical work that will underpin the guidelines in order to help drive private investment into projects that are in line with the global energy transition.

Add it all together and we’re left with a policy picture that is still muddled.

That’s particularly unsettling given the stakes here: 2025 was also marked by the second-worst wildfire season in Canadian history. That meant people were faced with evacuation orders and alerts, especially those in remote and Indigenous communities. It meant millions of Canadians saw their neighbourhoods blanketed in toxic wildfire smoke for days at a time. And B.C.’s Lower Mainland recently had its major highways cut off from the Interior of the province, and floodwater is pouring into Abbotsford after an atmospheric river drenched the coast. That’s eerily reminiscent of the 2021 atmospheric river event that devastated much of the province and left billions of dollars in economic losses in its wake.

Yet, when it comes to concrete actions to protect people and communities across Canada, much is left wanting from all orders of governments.

All this is happening as clean and electric technologies – like renewables, batteries and electric vehicles – continue their inexorable march to transform global energy markets.

That on its own holds enormous potential to dramatically reduce future damages from climate change. It also offers a massive opportunity for Canada to increase prosperity, support affordability and bolster competitiveness in a world responding to new trade relationships.

Looking to the year ahead, Canada needs to resolve the policy uncertainty that’s standing in the way of progress as soon as possible. The problems we face are urgent, but the solutions are right in front of us.

No more grandiose rhetoric please: all I want for Christmas is some concrete delivery of long-promised climate change policy by Canadian governments.

Rick Smith is president of the Canadian Climate Institute, the co-author of two bestselling books on the effects of pollution on human health, and the executive producer of Plastic People, a 2024 documentary chronicling the damage done by microplastics in the human body.

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The new strategy is an important moment for action to both reduce emissions in the country and support economic competitiveness in uncertain times. It follows months of speculation and some policy signals that introduced significant uncertainty about the government’s climate commitments.

The verdict? It ain’t perfect, but the strategy is a useful step forward.

Now the government needs to quickly implement it and flesh out the details it promises. That’s critical if Canada hopes to dramatically increase investments in low-carbon projects across the country and reduce uncertainty for businesses that stalls economic development. There’s never been a more urgent time: Canada’s trading partners are accelerating their energy transitions and Canada risks missing out on big economic opportunities right when they’re needed most.

So, what are some of the central pieces of the climate strategy that are encouraging – and where are some of the biggest uncertainties?

Top on the list is the commitment to strengthen industrial carbon pricing. This is one of the most important things the federal government can do to cut emissions while keeping costs low for businesses and having virtually no impact on the costs for consumers.

That last part is critical. Misinformation about this policy has ramped up recently, and it’s worth underlining that research shows that industrial carbon pricing has negligible costs for the average Canadian. The impact is around 0% on household consumption, according to Canadian Climate Institute research. There are a number of reasons for that: the carbon price applies to large emitters only; it adds very low costs on those businesses (think a Timbit per barrel of oil); moreover, these already-low costs on industrial goods are a small fraction of the final costs for finished consumer goods.

The climate competitiveness strategy commits to fixing the industrial-carbon-pricing benchmark, which defines minimum standards for provincial systems. It also commits to strengthening the backstop, which will be decisively applied in provinces that do not meet the benchmark. In addition, the government will be setting a carbon-price trajectory that is measured in decades and sets Canadian industry on the path to net-zero emissions.

Each of these commitments is positive. But the details here will matter greatly; it’s no exaggeration to say they will make or break this policy’s effectiveness, for both Canada’s emissions and its competitiveness.

Some other highlights included a commitment to finalizing methane regulations for oil and gas, which has been a long-standing promise to slash these powerful emissions by 75% over the next five years. Canada has already made big progress here, and these are lower-cost emission reductions that provide opportunities for innovative Canadian companies to lead the charge.

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The strategy also recognizes the importance of dramatically increasing investment into Canada’s electricity system: it commits to soon implementing the clean electricity investment tax credit and restates its commitment to the clean electricity regulations. It recommits to finalizing a national climate investment taxonomy for the financial sector by the end of 2026. And it dedicates $2 billion for a critical minerals sovereign fund to invest in critical mineral projects and companies using equity investments, loan guarantees and offtake agreements. These financial risk-sharing tools can unlock private-sector investment in Canadian projects to help seize a growing opportunity in the global energy transition.

There was nothing new on the fate of the Electric Vehicle Availability Standard, though we should hear more “in the coming weeks.” And the strategy is almost silent on climate adaptation. Investing in adaptation is not just a “nice to have”; upgrading infrastructure for extreme weather will be crucial to saving billions of dollars in costs from disrupted trade and other economic impacts, and should be a key component of any climate competitiveness strategy.

I’m often asked my opinion on how the new government is doing on climate change. My honest answer is “I’m hopeful but increasingly impatient.” Now that the government has declared its climate change intentions, it’s time to get a move on.

Rick Smith is president of the Canadian Climate Institute, the co-author of two bestselling books on the effects of pollution on human health, and the executive producer of Plastic People, a 2024 documentary chronicling the damage done by microplastics in the human body.

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Currently, much of the nation is rightly animated by the urgent need to diversify trade away from the United States. Our once-stable ally has quickly imposed an erratic barrage of self-owning tariffs and threatened our national sovereignty.

In practical terms, that means Canadian businesses will need to be competitive in markets that are rapidly moving toward clean energy. Think of the European Union and the United Kingdom: both jurisdictions continue to see rising adoption of renewables and electric vehicles. And both are set to impose carbon tariffs on imports that don’t already price carbon to specified levels. In China, another critical market, roughly half of all new car sales are already electric – and rising fast. Renewable installations are off the charts. And the country is expanding coverage of its massive national carbon market.

In fact, the transition to clean energy is happening at a blistering pace in many countries beyond these select few. To paraphrase economist Nicholas Stern, investment in climate action is the economic growth story of this century. The cost of solar power and batteries has fallen off a cliff in the last decade, down 80%. Offshore and onshore wind costs are down by 73% and 57%, respectively. Lithium-ion battery costs have fallen 90% since 2010.

Whatever the strategy includes, the focus on strong climate policy as an enabler of our nation’s economic success is the right one.

– Rick Smith, president, Canadian Climate Institute

These rock-bottom prices have powered a technological revolution that is quickly remaking global energy markets. Renewables generated more electricity than coal for the first time ever in the first half of this year. The amount of installed renewable power is expected to more than double in five short years, according to the latest from the International Energy Agency. Globally, more than one in four vehicles are set to be electric this year.

Though Trump gets most of the news headlines, there remains significant decarbonization progress within the United States. California, for instance, through a combination of policy and targeted investment, has increased its utility battery storage by 3,000% since 2020, with much more on the horizon.

Building Canada’s low-carbon economy

All of these data points reinforce the point that decarbonization is fast becoming the key driver of economic progress globally. That has important implications for Canada and the forthcoming climate competitiveness strategy. Strong climate policy that drives investment into low-carbon technologies that cut emissions will be crucial for the economic health of the country.

So, what should that strategy look like? There are a number of policies the federal government can implement right away to catalyze low-carbon growth.

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At the top of the list should be strengthening industrial carbon pricing across the country. Doing so will increase certainty for businesses and attract investment. It has the potential to break down interprovincial trade barriers and support export diversification.

Building bigger, cleaner, smarter electricity grids is another no-brainer that should also be on the list. And the same goes for cutting more methane emissions from the oil and gas sector and the creation of a sustainable investment taxonomy.

Plus, there are important policies the government should stand its ground on. The most obvious is the federal electric vehicle mandate.

Whatever the strategy includes, the focus on strong climate policy as an enabler of our nation’s economic success is the right one. A lot of the necessary pieces are already in play: now they need to be connected and strengthened.

Rick Smith is president of the Canadian Climate Institute, the co-author of two bestselling books on the effects of pollution on human health, and the executive producer of Plastic People, a 2024 documentary chronicling the damage done by microplastics in the human body.

The post Canada needs strong climate policy to be competitive in countries beyond the U.S. appeared first on Corporate Knights.

This summer has been historically destructive. Climate-change-driven wildfires continue to burn across the country. As of this writing, more than 8.7 million hectares have been scorched – an area about 2.5 times that of Vancouver Island – the second-worst year in Canadian history. Smoke from these wildfires ensured that the effects of the fires were felt in terms of degraded air quality hundreds of kilometres away. Drought affected many parts of the country, with southern Ontario, where I live, receiving virtually no rain in July and August.

Aside from the sheer scale of the devastation, the real significance of the past few months is what it augurs for the future. The summer of 2023, the worst wildfire season in our country’s history, prompted a flurry of surprised reactions. When the summer of 2024 wasn’t quite so bad, many people breathed a sigh of relief. But this past summer makes clear that 2023 wasn’t a one-off: the flames came roaring back. The trend is now clear, and we need stronger, faster action to keep Canadians and their communities safer. The only way to do this is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and to invest in improved climate-proof infrastructure.

Canada’s summer of wildfire isn’t unusual. Countries all over the world experienced something similar. In most places, governments have quite logically focused on necessary solutions and are doubling down on decarbonization and preparing for a future of worsening climate impacts. As one example, the European Union is locking in a plan to achieve a 90% reduction in climate-changing pollution by 2040.

In North America, however, we are overwhelmed with media coverage of Donald Trump’s vendetta against all things climate-related. There is no logic to this: in fact, Trump’s hatred of wind turbines apparently originated with a personal dispute related to his Scottish golf course.

With the U.S. federal government backing away from action on climate change (though it needs to be underlined that many U.S. states are staying the course on net-zero), there are some Canadian voices saying we should just fall in line with Trump’s retrograde agenda.

I’m confident that the vast majority of Canadians understand the folly of doing this. Canadians know that Donald Trump has terrible ideas. Terrible ideas on Ukraine. Terrible ideas on tariffs. And terrible ideas on climate change.

A much better approach is to skate to where the puck is headed globally. If you look at the current and contemplated climate change policies of all the other countries with which Canada needs to diversify its trade, they’re pointing in the opposite direction to that which Trump is laying out.

More than four months ago, the current federal government was elected on a very strong and explicit climate change platform. In the intervening period, it has given Canadians very little sense of how it wants to take the nation’s climate policy forward. That vacuum, unfortunately, has encouraged vested interests to surface endless cockamamie arguments as to why our country should give up on the fight against global warming completely.

The next parliamentary session is the moment to reset and relaunch Canada’s decarbonization journey.

The priorities are clear. A handful of laws, both existing and new, are necessary to move us forward, including fixing our system of industrial carbon pricing, nailing down new regulations to reduce methane pollution, building more clean electricity and getting more affordable electric vehicles into the hands of Canadians.

We need renewed progress on climate change that works for Canadians, not for Donald Trump. And we need it quickly.

Rick Smith is president of the Canadian Climate Institute, the co-author of two bestselling books on the effects of pollution on human health, and the executive producer of Plastic People, a 2024 documentary chronicling the damage done by microplastics in the human body.

The post A fork in the road for the Canadian climate change discussion appeared first on Corporate Knights.

The most recent is the heartbreaking tragedy that has taken the lives of more than 100 people in Texas due to one-in-1,000-year flash flooding. That includes the lives of 27 children and counsellors at a local girls’ summer camp. 

Here in Canada, we are still in the midst of a devastating wildfire season on track to be the second worst on record. It has left communities across the country – especially remote, northern and Indigenous communities – fleeing for safety or anxiously living in fear of what their future holds. It has cast enormous clouds of suffocating smoke on major urban centres in Canada and the United States, similar to what happened during 2023’s record-smashing wildfire season. 

And, of course, last July we nearly lost the entire town of Jasper to inferno, and this past January Los Angeles stared down catastrophic wildfires.

I could go on. But the point is that in each of these all-too-common events there is immediate and incalculable human tragedy and suffering. People’s lives are upended, they lose those most dear to them, or they are forever changed in some meaningful way. 

And there is climate change. 

Natural disasters are where the typically bloodless, scientific term of “climate change” meets reality. They are the front lines of an even larger human tragedy that is playing out before our eyes, almost in slow motion. I say “almost” because these disasters keep piling up quickly as the heating of the planet accelerates. 

We need to fully acknowledge both realities – both the immediate human impact and the underlying driver of climate change – and do so within a limited time window when media and the public are most attuned.

The question is: what to do about it? And how do we talk about these events in a way that respects the personal tragedy while being clear-eyed about the accelerating force of climate change?

Striking a delicate balance

At the top of the to-do list is rapidly reducing the amount of carbon pollution we send into the air and building a cleaner economy. We can also take a litany of actions to protect our communities and make sure we are better prepared for future disasters. 

Doing both at the same time will dramatically save costs and reduce human impacts, as the Canadian Climate Institute has shown in great detail. (The institute has even set up an online tool to track recent climate-related costs from extreme weather in Canada.) 

Read more by Rick Smith

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But part of the conundrum is about helping people gain a more visceral understanding of the reality we all face. Are people internalizing the link between these tragic events and climate change? It’s an important question because outside of these disasters, the reality of climate change can be much less impactful, often expressed in the more abstract language of science or policy. 

The answer seems to be that yes, a majority of Canadians are still making the connection between extreme weather and climate change, particularly with wildfire. But that’s despite a lack of media coverage linking the two. In fact, only 16% of Canadian news stories about wildfires explicitly named the connection to climate change, according to recent analysis. Much more needs to be done to make it clear that the two are inseparable.

For people working to accelerate policy change, that means it’s critical that we help make those connections. We need to fully acknowledge both realities – both the immediate human impact and the underlying driver of climate change – and do so within a limited time window when media and the public are most attuned.

To do so is not “politicizing” the weather or wildfires, as some have claimed. Of course, we need to treat the victims with great empathy. But we cannot let the moment pass without tying together symptom and cause.

Anything less risks exacerbating the current path we’re on and inviting even more danger. Future disasters will become worse and more frequent. These unspeakable tragedies will continue with the root of the problem left unspoken. And the public will remain in the dark about the true emergency we face, with climate change threatening even greater destruction in the future. 

Rick Smith is president of the Canadian Climate Institute, the co-author of two bestselling books on the effects of pollution on human health, and the executive producer of Plastic People, a 2024 documentary chronicling the damage done by microplastics in the human body.

The post Climate disasters demand respect, but we can’t be quiet about their causes appeared first on Corporate Knights.

But something interesting has happened in the 142 days (yes, that’s all it’s been) since Trump took office. In an increasing number of electoral contests that have occurred around the world since January 20, there has been a palpable anti-Trump backlash. This will have significant – and positive – consequences with respect to climate change progress.

We know what happened in Canada, of course. In the face of unhinged annexationist rhetoric emanating from the White House, Canadians chose a prime minister they hope will be able to keep the country safe from the threat of U.S. economic hostility, or worse. This anti-Trump sentiment was so strong, it enabled Mark Carney and the Liberal Party to close a 20-point gap with the Conservatives and propelled them to one of the least likely electoral victories in recent Canadian history. The Liberal platform, as opposed to the Conservatives’, was quite detailed in terms of its aspirations for continuing progress on climate change.

A few days later, something very similar happened in the Australian election. The Australian Labor Party achieved a dramatic come-from-behind victory because of the electorate’s Trump concerns. Improved climate-change policy will be one of the beneficiaries of this unlikely turn of events: the ALP platform is very strong – for instance – on continuing Australia’s clean energy transition.

A few European examples: in Germany, despite overt support from Elon Musk for the neo-Nazi Alternative for Germany party, the February election was won by the Christian Democratic Union. The impact on climate-change policy will be profound and positive: not only has the CDU agreed to press for German carbon neutrality by 2045, but it remains supportive of 90% decarbonization in Europe by 2040.

In the Romanian election less than a month ago, the Trump-backed candidate unexpectedly lost and the new President Nicuşor Dan has pledged continued support for decarbonization. And a similar result was delivered a few days later in tiny Albania.

I don’t want to pretend that everything is coming up roses. In fact, in just the last few days, the Trump-backed candidate in Poland narrowly beat the more Europe-positive candidate in what spells a setback for Poland’s climate-change leadership.

But the string of electoral losses that Trump-backed forces have sustained on three continents over the last short four months should serve as a reminder that many people around the world have concluded that Trump has bad ideas. Bad ideas on Ukraine. Bad ideas on tariffs. And bad ideas on decarbonization.

More columns from Rick Smith: 

How to focus the fury for good

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As Canadians, because we are inundated with U.S. news on a minute-by-minute basis, it’s easy to lose track of the fact that the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions is still accelerating in the rest of the world. You can take your pick of good news: sales of electric vehicles continue to climb and will make up one out of every four cars sold worldwide this year, according to the International Energy Association. By 2030, that proportion is set to reach 40%, which will help shave off more than five million barrels of oil per day from global demand.

In China, wind and solar power have taken market share from coal in a big way. Over the past decade, coal electricity has fallen from nearly 75% of the market in 2015 to 54% this April. Wind and solar have skyrocketed by more than 20 points over that same period. China’s president insists the country will not slow down – it’s massively expanding its carbon market to include steel, cement and aluminum.

Add all of this up and it starts to paint a positive picture of opportunity and hope amidst the chaos of climate retrenchment that continues south of the border.

Rick Smith is president of the Canadian Climate Institute, the co-author of two bestselling books on the effects of pollution on human health, and the executive producer of Plastic People, a 2024 documentary chronicling the damage done by microplastics in the human body.

The post Is there a silver lining for climate under Donald Trump? appeared first on Corporate Knights.

In fact, the new government was elected on a strong platform for climate action that buttresses affordability, security and competitiveness in a world shaken by these new uncertainties. Meeting this economic moment will require building on Canada’s strengths and policy successes, as well as working together with provinces and territories.

With that in mind, here are our suggestions for top priorities in the new government’s first 100 days.

First, strengthen industrial carbon pricing. Industrial carbon pricing is Canada’s single most powerful policy tool for reducing emissions and protecting industrial competitiveness, all at minimal cost to households. But it needs improvement. The Canadian Climate Institute’s extensive research on these systems shows they can reduce more emissions and give investors greater certainty if they are modernized to be more stringent, more transparent and better aligned across the country. The federal government has a crucial role to play in these efforts because it writes the minimum standards that underpin provincial systems across the country. It’s time those standards were updated.

Second, finalize methane regulations for oil and gas. Cutting emissions of methane – a particularly potent greenhouse gas – is a good-news story. We know how to reduce these emissions that are released in oil and gas production and pipeline transport, and doing so is cost-effective. In fact, Saskatchewan, Alberta and British Columbia have already slashed these powerful emissions by more than half in less than a decade. The last federal government almost finished this work with draft regulations released last summer that would require methane emissions associated with oil and gas to drop 75% by 2030. Thanks to shared federal-provincial action, the oil and gas sector is already well on its way to meeting this target. Our modelling has shown that Canada can go even further to reach 80% – and the government should consider doing so. Some provinces have already taken steps toward stronger action. British Columbia, for example, has committed to near zero methane from all industrial activities by 2035.

Third, finalize the clean electricity investment tax credit (ITC). Electrifying Canada’s economy with clean power will underpin the country’s success in reducing national emissions and attracting investment. That means a big build-out of intra- and interprovincial electricity infrastructure, but it will also require investment incentives like the ITCs. While the other federal ITCs were put into law last summer, the clean electricity ITC is still pending. Finalizing this long-promised policy will benefit all provinces and territories as they clean up their grids with billions in new investment support, all of which will ultimately help keep energy bills down. The clean electricity ITC is also the only one of its kind to make tax-exempt entities eligible, which will incentivize investors including First Nations, municipalities and pension funds.

Finally, establish a made-in-Canada climate taxonomy for the financial sector. Investment decisions are being shaped by climate change more than ever before, whether from disrupted supply chains, higher costs from more frequent and severe climate impacts, or rapid shifts in clean-energy and technology costs. A national climate taxonomy – a well-defined set of criteria to determine which activities and assets contribute to climate objectives – will give investors the standardized approach they need to evaluate these material risks and opportunities against their bottom lines. This type of policy is already in place or under development in more than 30 jurisdictions around the world. Ultimately, a climate taxonomy will enhance our country’s ability to attract investment. The federal government endorsed the approach recommended by Canada’s largest financial institutions last fall, which included a world-leading framework to classify emissions-intensive activities on the path to net-zero. The next step is to establish an independent body with stable funding to deliver this much-needed market guidance.

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Taken together, these four actions will help build on previous policy wins that have driven national emissions down to where they were in the 1990s – more than 8% below 2005 levels at last count. There is still significant work ahead to set Canada up for success in a world economy rapidly adjusting to new trade disruptions while the inevitable shift toward clean energy technologies continues to gather pace globally. While combatting climate change is a multi-decade endeavour, there is much that Canada can do right away. The next 100 days is plenty of time to implement the four actions we believe should sit atop the list of the new government’s climate priorities.

Rick Smith and Peter Nicholson are, respectively, president and chair of the board of the Canadian Climate Institute.

The post These should be the climate change priorities for Canada’s new government appeared first on Corporate Knights.

Next week, the new government of Canada will be revealed. And regardless of who wins the election, our nation is about to embark on a new chapter in the climate change discussion. The consumer carbon tax is gone. Because this single policy was so dominant in the climate change debate, its repeal allows considerable space for a refocusing on other solutions.

So where do we go from here?

I’ll share more specific policy recommendations after election day, but here are three priorities that need to form the core of a renewed case for climate change progress:

1. Make life more affordable

After living through the most significant inflationary period in decades, Canadians are now faced with another economic threat from the destructive and chaotic trade actions of the Trump administration. That fundamental fact will colour all policy actions in this country in the months and years ahead – and climate policy is no different.

The good news is that many of the solutions we need to grow our economy and cut emissions involve technologies and actions that can actually improve day-to-day affordability.

Case in point: heat pumps. Previous research done by the Canadian Climate Institute calculated the cost differences between heat pumps and gas heating combined with air conditioning. The policy context has changed since the time of the report, but when you add it all up, heat pumps continue to beat the gas option on price alone in most places across the country.

As Canadians switch from fossil fuels to better, more energy-efficient electric technologies, they will save money on energy costs over time: average household spending on energy is expected to decrease 12% by 2050.

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The same is true for renewables such as solar and wind, which now provide cheaper power than new fossil fuel plants and most existing fossil fuel facilities.

That is unequivocally good news for climate action. There is no path to a net-zero future without powering the majority of our economy with new clean electricity – upwards of two to three times more than is currently on the grid.

2. Build a more competitive economy

Despite Trump’s attempts to slow down decarbonization, other jurisdictions all over the world are accelerating the transition to clean energy. These jurisdictions are precisely the ones Canada needs most to diversify its economy away from an increasingly protectionist United States.

The European Union, for example, is forging ahead with action to stamp out emissions: it is expected to solidify its 2040 emissions target in the coming months that would see the trading bloc cut carbon pollution by 90%. The United Kingdom is planning to meet all of the country’s power demand with clean electricity by 2030 – that’s after closing its last coal-fired power plant last September.

India, the world’s third-largest emitter, is expected to launch a new carbon market in October of 2026. And in China, which already has the world’s largest carbon market, the government is expanding coverage to include steel, cement and aluminum. That will add about three billion tonnes of emissions to the program and will mean that more than 60% of China’s total emissions are covered by the carbon trading system.

Even within the United States, 24 states in the U.S. Climate Alliance that represent close to 60% of the national economy have served notice that they will cut emissions in half by 2030.

All this will have profound consequences for Canada’s economic competitiveness. Decarbonization is where the business opportunities are: according to the International Energy Agency, investments in clean energy were expected to reach $2 trillion in 2024, almost double the amount invested in fossil fuels. The agency sees global demand for fossil fuels peaking before 2030.

Canada needs good climate policies to compete in a world where more of our major trading partners, including the European Union and the United Kingdom, are putting carbon border tariffs in place. In fact, even the United States is considering similar measures.

Fortunately, industrial carbon pricing can reduce the cost of these tariffs and keep revenue within our borders to invest in emissions-reducing projects. That’s a policy win that is helping drive emissions down while keeping costs low for companies – about the cost of a Timbit per barrel of oil. Not only that, these systems have nearly zero impact on household costs.

Canadian climate policy will need to lean into these benefits to stay competitive in a rapidly changing international environment.

3. Protect Canadians from extreme weather disasters

At its core, climate change is an issue that threatens the security and livelihoods of communities across Canada. And this threat will only increase over time.

Last year was the costliest for insured climate damages by far, at more than $8.5 billion. That shattered the next-closest year on record, which was in 2016 when the Fort McMurray wildfires drove the severe-weather price tag to $6 billion. The 2024 tally includes the Jasper wildfire, flooding in Quebec and Ontario, and the multibillion-dollar hailstorm in Calgary.

These impacts are just part of the overall cost of climate change. Previous research from the Canadian Climate Institute estimated that by this year damages from climate change would shave off $25 billion from the Canadian economy relative to a stable-climate scenario.

These losses add up in a variety of ways, but to give one real-world example, during the record-setting forest fires of 2023, thick smoke engulfed cities in Ontario and beyond. In just one week, these smoke-filled skies added more than $1 billion in health costs to the province.

Policymakers need to address these threats to our communities to ensure that Canadians across the country are better prepared for future climate disasters.

One of the oft-repeated themes of Earth Day is “Think globally and act locally.” In this next chapter of the Canadian climate change discussion, we need to keep this front of mind like never before. Donald Trump’s incoherent and economically illiterate ideas have plunged our country into a wholesale re-examination of our future. Good climate change policies are not a multilateral “nice to have”: they are a critical contribution to keeping life more affordable, making the Canadian economy more competitive, and keeping our communities safer.

Rick Smith is president of the Canadian Climate Institute, the co-author of two bestselling books on the effects of pollution on human health, and the executive producer of Plastic People, a 2024 documentary chronicling the damage done by microplastics in the human body.

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