“Despite positive rhetoric from Canadian leaders, experts cite substantial discrepancies between the goals the government has set and the implementation of the policies necessary to achieve them,” states the two-page Canada summary published alongside the main report. “With a low rating for national climate policy, experts show alarm about considerable financial support provided to fossil fuel companies, and significant extraction and export of both thermal and metallurgical coal. They also cite a continued increase in oil and gas production, which has helped expand the country’s GHG emissions.”
Canadian climate hawks who responded to the CCPI survey acknowledge “that market economics are strongly propelling development of new renewable energy in Canada’s traditionally fossil fuel-heavy regions, despite the lack of a clear commitment for setting or implementing renewable energy targets, both at the national and provincial levels,” the summary states. But they “cite a troubling recent emphasis on supporting ‘small’ modular nuclear reactors, and potentially even an interest in considering nuclear as a green source of supply. Experts have further called on the government to update its extremely weak 2030 emissions reduction target and correct the course of its plans to meet it.”