Freeland, Carney May Be Canada’s Last, Best Chance for a Green Recovery
a running mate, California Senator Kamala Harris, who’d proposed a
$10-trillion climate plan and boasts a strong record for promoting
environmental justice and prosecuting rogue fossil fuel companies.
Those milestones leave Canada as one of the last Western
democracies with no coherent plan to cut ties with the industries that
brought us a mounting global climate emergency. It’s a position that is helping to shatter Alberta’s fossil fuel-dependent economy, as oil and gas investment declines and jobs evaporate. It will cost Canadians millions of well-paid jobs in every part of the country, as a rapid transition away from carbon picks up speed just about everywhere else.
“If we’re caught flat-footed by a Biden victory, we may
watch as entire sectors of our growing clean energy and cleantech
sectors pack up and move to greener pastures in the U.S.,” Environmental
Defence Executive Director Tim Gray warned
in an early August blog post. “Or they may just wither as they fail to
secure the government support needed to commercialize innovations.”