Paris and Pipelines? Canada's Climate Policy Puzzle

Abstract

Can Canada build new oil pipelines and reduce its greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions pursuant to its international legal commitment under the Paris climate change agreement? Moreover, can Canada simultaneously promote oil sands production and sustainability? A great many otherwise reasonable Canadians – including academics, NGO and government policy analysts, media pundits, politicians, and members of the general public – insist we can. Paris versus pipelines, on this Panglossian view, is a false choice. This get-rich-and-save-the-environment-too view, however, is fatefully mistaken – the federal government’s own GHG emissions data leave absolutely no doubt about this. But it is mistaken in an interesting and instructive way: Only by excavating and exposing the normative foundations of this view will Canada be able to effectively chart a course towards net zero carbon emissions and sustainability.

This article proceeds as follows. Part II examines Canada’s emerging climate change policies through the conceptual prism of Canada as a “carbon democracy.” Parts III and IV use the concept of “carbon democracy” to unpack and explain the contradictions of Canadian climate change policy vis-à-vis climate science and economics, respectively. Part V concludes by sketching out an alternative, democratic pathway for Canadian climate change and sustainability policy.

Keywords: Climate Change, Paris Agreement, Sustainability, Pipelines, Carbon Pricing