As Justin Trudeau and the provincial and territorial premiers confront a summer season of relentless heat, drought and wildfires, it\u2019s tempting to ask what\u2019s on their to-do list.<\/p>\n
But that\u2019s the wrong question for a country that promised decisive climate action at the 2015 Paris conference but is now running away from that commitment on too many fronts. What Canada\u2019s political leaders need now is a don\u2019t-do list.<\/p>\n
The sense of urgency is coming from all sides: from a hemisphere-wide heat wave<\/a> to failing crops<\/a>, from the wildfires<\/a> sweeping British Columbia, to the smoke<\/a> they\u2019ve been sending to cities much farther away, producing serious respiratory health risks that health professionals are still scrambling<\/a> to fully understand and quantify.<\/p>\n For a quarter-century, we\u2019ve been accustomed to framing climate change impacts in the future tense, and elected officials have been content to postpone action to get at the root of the problem. Now, the future has become the present, and the political narrative isn\u2019t keeping up.<\/p>\n With daytime skies darkening from Calgary to Prince George, BC, the summertime reading has hardly been any lighter. In late July, the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences <\/em>published a study<\/a> that was quickly dubbed Hothouse Earth. It warned of \u201cthe risk that self-reinforcing feedbacks could push the Earth System toward a planetary threshold that, if crossed, could prevent stabilization of the climate.\u201d The apocalyptic headlines that followed led the American meteorologist Eric Holthaus to point out<\/a> that the authors intended their study as a call to action, not a declaration of defeat.<\/p>\n Then the New York Times Magazine<\/em> devoted<\/a> an entire issue to an 18-month, 66-page investigation of the period in the 1970s and \u201980s when decision-makers understood and accepted climate science, saw the crisis on the horizon, came close to an initial global action plan to get greenhouse gas emissions under control \u2014 but fell short of a final deal.<\/p>\n Then, as now, politicians and diplomats needed to agree on a to-stop list, focused on human activities that drive up atmospheric carbon. Now, even more than then, delaying that action is a luxury we can\u2019t afford.<\/p>\n Which is why it\u2019s becoming a serious problem that the Trudeau government came to power with a two-part to-do list on climate and energy. It promised to re-engage with global climate action, arrive at a Canada-wide climate plan and support a thriving cleantech industry, while clearing a path for continued fossil fuel and pipeline development.<\/p>\n Nearly three years in, it\u2019s lagging on the first part of that plan and doubling down on the second. The government has watered down<\/a> the carbon pricing regime that was to be the cornerstone of its pan-Canadian climate plan, delayed<\/a> implementation of critically important methane control regulations and slowed down<\/a> parts of its signature Clean Fuel Standard. And it\u2019s falling short of a \u201chighly insufficient<\/a>\u201d Harper-era emission reduction target that Trudeau once declared a floor, not a ceiling, for the country\u2019s climate ambition.<\/p>\n There\u2019s no such equivocation on the other side of the to-do list. Ottawa approved two<\/a> pipeline expansions and ended up buying one of them<\/a>, in a deal that resurrected the Trans Mountain project and the company behind it in a single swipe. Meanwhile, provincial governments in British Columbia and Nova Scotia are gearing up for an expected liquefied natural gas export boom that will trigger significant releases of climate-busting methane.<\/p>\n So what not<\/em> to do if the Trudeau government still wants to get its climate agenda right? Here\u2019s a start.<\/p>\n When I asked a group of climate policy colleagues to contribute to this list, one phrase was the most common response: \u201cWhen you\u2019re in a hole, stop digging.\u201d Trudeau and his cabinet are facing what National Observer calls a \u201cleadership moment<\/a>,\u201d and a great deal depends on how they respond.<\/p>\n Photo: Protestors stand outside the fence as Prime Minister Justin Trudeau visits Kinder Morgan in Edmonton Alta, on Tuesday June 5, 2018. The Canadian Press, by Jason Franson.<\/span><\/p>\n Do you have something to say about the article you just read? Be part of the\u00a0<\/em>Policy Options\u00a0discussion, and send in your own submission.\u00a0Here is a\u00a0<\/em>link<\/em><\/a>\u00a0on how to do it. <\/em>|\u00a0Souhaitez-vous r\u00e9agir \u00e0 cet article ? <\/em>Joignez-vous aux d\u00e9bats d\u2019<\/em>Options politiques\u00a0et soumettez-nous votre texte en suivant ces\u00a0<\/em>directives<\/em><\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" As Justin Trudeau and the provincial and territorial premiers confront a summer season of relentless heat, drought and wildfires, it\u2019s tempting to ask what\u2019s on their to-do list. But that\u2019s the wrong question for a country that promised decisive climate action at the 2015 Paris conference but is now running away from that commitment on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":258330,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"content-type":"","ep_exclude_from_search":false,"apple_news_api_created_at":"2025-10-08T02:13:36Z","apple_news_api_id":"becd13be-6664-4482-9f61-7972f84ea8b4","apple_news_api_modified_at":"2025-10-08T02:13:37Z","apple_news_api_revision":"AAAAAAAAAAD\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/w==","apple_news_api_share_url":"https:\/\/apple.news\/Avs0TvmZkRIKfYXly-E6otA","apple_news_cover_media_provider":"image","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_cover_video_id":0,"apple_news_cover_video_url":"","apple_news_cover_embedwebvideo_url":"","apple_news_is_hidden":"","apple_news_is_paid":"","apple_news_is_preview":"","apple_news_is_sponsored":"","apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_metadata":"\"\"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"","apple_news_slug":"","apple_news_sections":[],"apple_news_suppress_video_url":false,"apple_news_use_image_component":false},"categories":[9361,9358,9372],"tags":[8408],"article-status":[],"irpp-category":[4261,4295],"section":[],"irpp-tag":[],"class_list":["post-266525","issues","type-issues","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-environnement","category-politique","category-recent-stories-fr","tag-energy-policy-fr","irpp-category-environnement","irpp-category-politique"],"acf":[],"apple_news_notices":[],"yoast_head":"\n\n
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