Trudeau’s plan to cap oil & gas sector emissions will profit foreign energy-producing nations, leave Canadians poorer, and do nothing for the environment.
For someone like Justin Trudeau who craves international attention and never met a virtue-signalling opportunity he didn’t want to exploit, the COP26 conference is like a drug.
Suffice it to say, Trudeau certainly indulged at the conference in his short speech.
In that small amount of time, he managed to set Canada on a course that will deeply damage our economy and our national unity, while doing nothing to actually help the environment.
In a press release, the government detailed Trudeau’s pledges:
“The Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, today announced Canada’s ambitious and enhanced plans to support the global phase-out of thermal coal, help developing countries transition to clean fuel alternatives as quickly as possible, and reduce pollution in the oil and gas sector.
Ending coal power emissions is one of the single most important steps the world must take in the fight against climate change. That is why the Prime Minister today announced that Canada is working toward ending exports of thermal coal by no later than 2030. The ban would follow action already taken, including accelerating the phasing out of conventional coal-fired electricity in our country by 2030, and putting in place investments of more than $185 million to support coal workers and their communities through the transition to cleaner energy.
To further support the global community’s efforts to phase out coal-fired electricity, the Prime Minister also announced up to $1 billion for the Climate Investment Funds Accelerated Coal Transition Investment Program, through Canada’s international climate finance contribution, to help developing countries transition from coal-fired electricity to clean power as quickly as possible. This investment will lead to the successful implementation of country-level strategies and associated kick-start projects, build support at the local and regional levels, and accelerate the retirement of existing coal mines and coal power plants, while enabling new economic activities and contributing to a socially inclusive and gender equal transition. In addition, the Prime Minister announced $25 million in funding to the Energy Sector Management Assistance Program, a partnership with the World Bank. This will help develop and implement clean energy alternatives, and support low- and middle-income countries in the transition to a cleaner economy.
Canada is among the world’s biggest oil and gas producers, and all Canadians have benefitted from the sector’s contributions to our economy. As our country and the world move to clean energy alternatives, we need the sector to continue to adapt, which will spur innovation and help create the jobs of the future. The Prime Minister today announced that Canada is the first major oil-producing country moving to capping and reducing pollution from the oil and gas sector to net zero by 2050. To help do this at a pace and scale needed to achieve the shared goal of net zero by 2050, the government will set 5-year targets, and will also ensure that the sector makes a meaningful contribution to meeting Canada’s 2030 climate goals. In a letter sent today from Ministers Guilbeault and Wilkinson, the government is seeking the advice of the Net-Zero Advisory Body on how best to move forward on this approach.”
Restricting our economy, giving away more taxpayer money
As you read above, Trudeau is planning to give away another $1 billion in taxpayer dollars, at a time when Canada is already deeply in debt.
With the plan to ban thermal coal exports, Trudeau is directly intervening in the economy, using government power to crush a Canadian industry.
And that treatment is being extended to the broader energy sector.
Amazingly, Trudeau seems to think that other countries see Canada as an example:
“We’ll cap oil and gas sector emissions today and ensure they decrease tomorrow at a pace and scale needed to reach net zero by 2050,” said Trudeau.
“That’s no small task for a major oil and gas producing country. It’s a big step that’s absolutely necessary.”
Trudeau appears to believe that other countries will follow in Canada’s footsteps, while – in reality – they must be laughing.
For example, US President Joe Biden has been upset that China and Russia didn’t have much of a presence at COP26.
Of course, China uses tons of energy, and Russia produces a lot of it.
Russia thus benefits highly from a country like Canada weakening our own energy sector, since that means more potential profit and market share for Russia.
And, given China’s plans to expand coal production, combined with their huge share of global emissions, anything Canada does – even if we shut down our entire country – would be easily cancelled out by China’s actions.
Damaging national unity
With Alberta having voted to end equalization, a clear message has been sent that Canada’s current way of being organized isn’t working.
Other provinces are glad to take the money generated by the energy sector, but then turn around and restrict the energy sector, damaging Alberta’s economy while still feeling entitled to the money.
Now, with Justin Trudeau seeking to burnish his own ‘woke’ image at an international conference by selling out the energy sector, national unity will be weakened even further.
Trudeau once again has shown that he values his global perception above the well-being of Canadians or the strength of the country.
Achieving nothing but impoverishing our own nation
People must really wake up to this reality:
As prices rise, as life gets more and more expensive, our governments are not only doing nothing to ease that problem, but are deliberately making the problem worse.
When politicians say ‘climate action,’ what they really mean is ‘make life more expensive’.
It’s why the carbon tax keeps going up (Canada has one of the highest carbon taxes on Earth), and why those in power always say “we need to do more.”
For politicians like Justin Trudeau, the rising cost of living isn’t a ‘bug,’ it’s a ‘feature.’
Elites exempt
What makes much of those so infuriating – beyond the foolishness of our nation wrecking our economy and allowing our competitors to profit at our expense – is the fact that the politicians and elites at the COP26 conference are exempt from any of the economic pain they are inflicting on others.
They still fly in on their private jets, they still have luxury diets, they still consume as much as they want. Many – such as Prince Charles and other celebrities – have a carbon footprint that is orders of magnitude higher than the average person, yet somehow feel they can lecture everyone else.
Why do they not lead by example?
Why don’t they give up their lifestyles?
Why don’t they hold the conferences through Skype or Zoom?
Once again, we see that what those in power really want is control, the ability to feel like saviours through forcibly changing the behaviour of the masses.
They see themselves as above everyone else, as the navigators of the world.
Rather than embracing individual freedom and limited government, they want more and more centralization, more and more power, and more and more control.
Spencer Fernando
Photo – YouTube
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