Had things worked out differently, the Liberal government’s post-election agenda might have started to take shape this spring with a budget focused on addressing climate change. But responding to an economic crisis brought on by a global pandemic is presenting the government with new opportunities to combat climate change — and the Liberals might be judged by how well they seize the moment.
Had things worked out differently, the Liberal government’s post-election agenda might have started to take shape this spring with a budget focused on addressing climate change.
That might seem like a missed opportunity now. But responding to an economic crisis brought on by a global pandemic is presenting the government with new opportunities to combat climate change — and the Liberals might be judged by how well they seize this moment.
Had there been a budget this spring, it likely would have included some mention of at least two initiatives that are now part of the government’s pandemic response: orphan well cleanup and climate-related financial disclosure.
With Alberta’s economy already in dire need of assistance, federal aid for the work of cleaning up abandoned oil and gas wells was under consideration before COVID-19 and a steep drop in oil prices did deeper damage in March. To address all of those challenges, the Liberals announced $1.7 billion in funding for wells in April as part of a relief package that also included new assistance to help firms reduce carbon emissions.
Environmentalists seemed to approve. So did Alberta Premier Jason Kenney. But demands for more help persisted.
Strings attached
When the Trudeau government announced this week a program to provide loans to large and medium-sized employers (including oil and gas producers), it said that any borrowing would come with conditions — including a requirement to “publish annual climate-related disclosure reports … including how their future operations will support environmental sustainability and national climate goals.”
Proponents of climate disclosure — among them Mark Carney, former governor of the Bank of Canada — have called on firms to publicly account for how their business will be affected in future by both government policies to reduce emissions and the actual impacts of climate change. In theory, such disclosures would push investors to push companies to make environmentally sound decisions.
In 2015, the Financial Stability Board, an international body established by the G20, launched a task force on climate disclosure chaired by Michael Bloomberg, the former mayor of New York City. That task force came back with recommendations in 2017. Last June, the Liberal government’s own expert