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Good afternoon, and welcome to Globe Climate, a newsletter about climate change, environment and resources in Canada.
Ottawa is facing more pressure than ever to back off key components of its energy deal with Alberta in the interest of getting more Canadian oil and gas to market. We’ll get into more on that below.
Now, let’s catch you up on other news.
Noteworthy reporting this week:
- Ecology: ‘Chronic underfunding’ of B.C. salmon monitoring program could allow population declines to go unnoticed, study warns
- Analysis: As proposals for nuclear stations proliferate across Canada, ‘fleet-based’ reactor deployment remains elusive
- Waste: Almost two-thirds of electronic devices that Canadians scrap still work
- Art: There are two sides to David Suzuki. Both appear in this intimate stage play
- Oil and gas: The country missed out a decade ago, but changing geopolitics and rising demand for natural gas present new export opportunities
A deeper dive
A Syncrude facility is busy near Fort McMurray, Alta. Energy Minister Tim Hodgson says talks between Alberta and Ottawa may go past the MOU’s April 1 deadline for finalizing its policy agreements.PAT KANE/The New York Times
Environmental compromises and intergovernmental friction
For this week’s deeper dive, progress on the Alberta-Ottawa memorandum of understanding.
Energy and Natural Resources Minister Tim Hodgson sat down with The Globe’s Adam Radwanski recently amid follow-up talks on the policy expectations set by the memorandum of understanding between Ottawa and Alberta signed in November.
As Adam writes, the minister responded firmly to a question about two aspects in particular: a commitment by Alberta to make its industrial carbon price much more stringent, and a major oil-sands investment in carbon-capture being a prerequisite for a new oil pipeline.
“Look, the MOU is a comprehensive document. It’s not a pick and choose,” Hodgson said. “All of its topics, in their totality, are important.”
For the fossil fuel sector and those who were critical of Ottawa’s climate-related concessions in the MOU, this is stressful to hear. For others, it’s a relief. It’s especially welcome commentary for environmental advocates, many of who were critical of Ottawa’s climate-related concessions in the MOU.
Ottawa’s compromises included:
- Dropping a planned cap on oil-and-gas sectoral emissions;
- Suspending federal electricity regulations;
- Softening methane regulations in return for carbon pricing;
- Opening the door to changing a ban on large oil tankers off B.C.’s northern coast.
Hodgson also acknowledged that the talks may go past the April 1 deadline.
Those discussions are now taking place in the shadow of the Iran war and a growing oil crisis, placing pressure on Canada to step up in exporting and becoming a reliable trade partner.
And although it’s not exactly clear what progress has been made, a common perception among both industry and environmental groups is that the two governments are still some distance apart on both carbon pricing and carbon capture.
Adam writes that how the pricing policy turns out is correlated with the discussions around carbon capture, which is the most prominent example of emissions-reducing technology.
To get the full view of how much there still is to figure out, and what factors are at play, you can read Adam’s analysis here.
“If we need another day, another week. … If the federal government and the Alberta government are engaging the way they’re engaging today, I’m highly confident we’ll put our heads down and grind it out and get it done,” Hodgson said.
We’ll be back with more (some time) after April 1.
What else you missed
- Alberta-Ottawa MOU talks should address renewables roadblocks, think tank says
- What are Prime Minister Mark Carney’s four newly announced Northern major projects?
Opinion and analysis
Kashechewan First Nation faces a new problem in its decades-long water crisis
Investing in First Nations infrastructure and clean water is good for Canada, so that these Nations don’t have to keep expending their precious resources – especially at a time when Canada is looking to extract resources from the nearby Ring of Fire.
— Tanya Talaga, freelance columnist
Canada must remember that the future is electricity, not fossil fuels
Canada has what it takes to attract that investment. But to do so, we need a new strategy that prioritizes clean electricity and transmission build-out across Canada, co-ordinated by a federal–provincial–territorial clean electricity table to tackle significant constraints on growth.
— Kevin Thomas, CEO of the Shareholder Association for Research & Education
Business and investing
The green energy president? Trump’s policies spark a surprise rally
U.S. President Donald Trump’s war against Iran has sent the price of crude oil soaring and rattled energy exports from the Middle East. It has also added one more reason to embrace renewables, such as wind and solar.
Should investors embrace Trump as the greenest president ever? Our hearts say no, but the stock market is telling us yes.
The iShares Global Clean Energy ETF, an exchange-traded fund that holds shares in dozens of renewable players and serves as a good proxy for the sector, has gained nearly 13 per cent this year – even as rising concerns about inflation have caused some volatility.
Photo of the week
A group of Indigenous women from across Ecuador’s Amazon look at a map of potential oil-drilling locations during a meeting in Nueva Loja, Ecuador, on March 7.Dolores Ochoa/The Associated Press
Guides and Explainers
- We’ve rounded up our reporters’ content to help you learn about what a carbon tax is, what happened at COP30 and just generally how Canada will change because of climate change.
- We have ideas to make your travelling more sustainable and your lifestyle at home more eco-friendly, and tips for how to talk to your kids about climate change.
- A Nation’s Paper, a series of essays from writers exploring the role The Globe and Mail has played in Canada’s history, also highlights the newspaper’s green evolution.