“I’m the same me”: Carney says he’s still committed to climate change

Carney says he’s still committed to the fight against climate change despite his decision to scrap the consumer carbon tax and pause electric-vehicle sales mandates.

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Prime Minister Mark Carney says he’s still committed to the fight against climate change despite his decision to scrap the consumer carbon tax and pause electric-vehicle sales mandates. Before entering politics, Carney championed such initiatives as essential pillars of government climate policy.

Carney’s comments came in an interview released Oct. 16 on Bloomberg Weekend’s the Mishal Husain Show. Carney rejected suggestions that he has softened his stance on environmental policy.

“I’m the same me. I’m focused on the same issues,” he said, responding to him scrapping the consumer tax, pausing the EV mandate, and speculation that he may drop the cap on emissions and production. “The question is how do you make progress toward those issues? And particularly how do you make progress in a way that is most effective?”

Carney argued that the carbon tax was politically divisive and ineffective.

“The consumer carbon tax was at best going to be responsible for high single digit proportion of emissions reductions over the course of the next 25 years,” he said. “It was far from the most important measure in place.”

Carney’s recent comments are a complete reversal from what he wrote in his book, Values.

In True North’s investigative series on the prime minister’s book, Value(s), it was revealed that Carney once tried to convince the world to adopt carbon taxes, suggesting that any politicians who do so should be held accountable. Carney has since abandoned the carbon tax.

“One of the most important initiatives is carbon pricing. The best approach is a revenue-neutral, progressive carbon tax,” Carney wrote.

Many of Carney’s claims promoting carbon taxes, like consumersgetting more back in taxes than they paid, have since been disproven.

In his book Values, Carney also called central bank digital currencies the “future of money” and championed diversity, equity, and inclusion.

Despite Carney repeatedly claiming to have “cancelled” the carbon tax, the law still remains in effect and other measures targeting industry remain.

The prime minister does not possess the ability to repeal or amend the Greenhouse Gas Pollution Pricing Act without a vote in Parliament. In reality, Carney kept the law on the books and changed the value of the consumer carbon tax to $0.

As for reducing emissions, Carney said that 20 per cent of Canada’s emissions currently come from building houses and commercial buildings, which he said he planned to reduce.

He has previously championed prefabricated and modular housing, which could reduce emissions because they are much smaller than normal homes. However, experts have called his $25 billion housing plan “just smoke and mirrors.”

As for reducing emissions in the oil and gas sector, Carney championed carbon capture and storage. He also explained that methane flaring is a 70 times bigger contributor to climate change than CO2 emissions, hoping to eliminate that in every province.

His government’s new approach follows other significant departures from his previous climate record. As United Nations Special Envoy for Climate Action and Finance, Carney helped craft global carbon-pricing initiatives and described carbon taxes as the “linchpin of responsible climate governance.”

When asked about squandering his reputation as a climate activist, Carney dismissed it.

“My role as prime minister is not about my reputation. My role as prime minister is about what’s in the best interest of Canada,” he said. “What we need to do is to be as effective as possible in terms of addressing climate change while growing our economy.”