In the debate over Canada’s role in fighting climate change, two truths collide: we’re the world’s fourth biggest producer of oil yet account for less than 2 percent of global carbon emissions. This conundrum is often misconstrued to suggest nothing we do matters.
“Let’s face it,” concluded a typical column published by the Canadian Energy Centre, the Alberta government’s recently shuttered pro-oil think tank. “Canada is responsible for only 1.5 per cent of global GHG emissions. Shutting down the oil and gas industry, let alone the entire country, wouldn’t have much of a worldwide impact.” That perspective is ubiquitous among Conservatives, but it’s also broader: in 2020, Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland told the Financial Times, “Even if Canadians ceased emitting all carbon, we wouldn’t move the dial.”
