Former environment ministers Catherine McKenna and Steven Guilbeault accused Environment Minister Julie Dabrusin of making misleading claims about Canada meeting its Paris climate targets.
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Environment Minister Julie Dabrusin is facing criticism from two former environment ministers after she said Canada remains “absolutely committed” to its Paris Accord climate commitments while attending COP31 in Antalya, Turkey.
McKenna, who is also at COP31, said the claim that Canada is still committed to its targets is “factually untrue.” She added that “Canada now has zero chance of meeting its 2030 Paris commitment and has no path to meet net zero by 2050 (and this is before any new oilsands or LNG).”
Speaking from COP31, Guilbeault said Dabrusin’s message to conference delegates “defies reason.” He said he believes Canada’s government has been shown modelling and reports from the Canadian Climate Institute and added: “For her to claim that Canada is still committed to meeting the Paris targets, it’s disingenuous and it should have no place in politics.”
The dispute comes amid long-running questions about whether Canada can meet its 2030 and 2050 climate goals. Under Stephen Harper, Ottawa promised emissions would be 30 per cent below 2005 levels. In 2021, the Trudeau government increased the target to between 40 and 45 per cent and set a goal of net-zero by 2050.
The latest figures cited in the report say that as of 2024 Canada had achieved a 10.3 per cent reduction from 2005 levels, with total emissions down 78 million tonnes in 21 years—described as the worst-performing country in the G7.
The Canadian Climate Institute’s modelling cited in the report suggests Canada will not reach net-zero by 2050. Prime Minister Mark Carney said in June that Canada’s emissions were likely to rise over the next few years, and the report also references an emissions reduction projection in a report by Jerry DeMarco, Canada’s environment commissioner, released last month.
DeMarco’s report, as described, said Canada is only expected to achieve a 28 per cent emissions reduction by 2030, accounting for rollbacks in federal climate policy over the previous 18 months. The report cited the cancellation of the consumer carbon price, the two billion trees program, the oil and gas emissions cap, the electric vehicle mandate and the low-carbon fuel procurement program, along with a decision to weaken the industrial carbon price.
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