The climate wing of the Liberal Party is rallying around Mark Carney, offering the former central banker credibility on a file the Grits see as their competitive advantage over Conservatives.
This week Carney picked up endorsements from Environment and Climate Change Minister Steven Guilbeault, Energy and Natural Resources Minister Jonathan Wilkinson (who previously served as environment minister), and MP Ryan Turnbull, a major proponent of sustainable finance who served as the Parliamentary Secretary under former Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland.
Notably, those three have chosen not to support long-time colleague Freeland, who has a reputation among climate advocates as being an obstacle to more progressive climate policy.
Guilbeault’s endorsement of Carney in particular is also drawing the ire of the Conservative Party of Canada. On Thursday, Pierre Poilievre’s Conservatives launched an attack on Carney, using Guilbeault as a proxy to say the “wacko” environment minister confirmed “Carbon Tax Carney is just like Justin.”
“If Carbon Tax Carney was telling the truth about the carbon tax, he would reject Guilbeault’s endorsement,” the Conservatives said in a statement. “Instead, Carbon Tax Carney is currently hiding from the media, and getting Guilbeault to front his Liberal leadership campaign in his stead.”
In an interview with Canada’s National Observer, Guilbeault said he’s known Carney for years having worked together on climate finance issues with the United Nations, and that the two “largely see eye to eye” on how to tackle the climate crisis.
Carney, who chaired financial heavyweight Brookfield Asset Management while heading its transition investing arm, and served as the UN special envoy for climate action, is widely recognized as an expert on climate finance issues.
“We have a chance now to make this person the leader of the Liberal Party, and potentially the next prime minister of Canada,” Guilbeault said. “For me, that's a tremendous opportunity.”
In an election widely expected to focus on deteriorating Canada-U.S. relations, Guilbeault, Wilkinson and Turnbull suggested Carney is also well positioned to steer the economy through choppy waters given his experience dealing with economic crises. He was the head of the Bank of Canada through the 2008 financial crisis, and led the Bank of England through Brexit.
“There are few in this country better equipped to lead Canada in addressing the challenges Canada faces moving forward — from facing Donald Trump and the threat of tariffs; to the challenge of enhancing Canadian productivity; to the existential threat of climate change — than Mark Carney,” Wilkinson said in a statement.
Carney may have experience getting out of financial crises, but avoiding them in the first place is the question when it comes to the climate crisis, said Julie Segal, senior program manager of climate finance with advocacy group Environmental Defence.
“If he's looking to be prime minister …. That means aligning our financial system with climate action,” she said.
While Carney has been at the forefront of the finance world discussing climate change, he is far from the warrior the climate movement is calling for, as previously reported by Canada’s National Observer. The main divergence between Carney and climate advocates is that Carney is reluctant to regulate financial institutions.
Limits and delays
In May, Carney appeared before a Senate banking committee to discuss Independent Sen. Rosa Galvez’s Climate Aligned Finance Act — legislation that would require federally regulated financial institutions, like banks and pension funds, to align their portfolios with Canada’s emission reduction targets. Segal said any Liberal leader who is serious about climate action should commit to passing that bill.
However, Carney told the Senate he disagrees with the bill’s prescriptive approach, preferring to require only that companies disclose their climate related risks and plans and let investors decide who to support.
“Carney has shown he understands the severity of climate risk and how it will impact Canada's economy, but he would need to step beyond the solutions he's previously attempted or proposed,” Segal said.
Voluntary initiatives have so far largely failed. One of Carney’s signature initiatives was launching the Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net-Zero in 2021 that in theory was to galvanize the financial sector to align with climate action. In practice, banks continued pumping billions into new coal, oil and gas projects after signing on. The alliance is now unravelling with BMO, TD, CIBC, and National Bank, alongside major US banks, exiting the alliance ahead of U.S. President Donald Trump’s inauguration, underscoring the limits of voluntary measures.
Guilbeault said regulating the financial sector to align with climate action one day may be necessary, but it is not a position the government has taken. Instead, as a first step the country needs to make progress on requiring better disclosure of climate risks, and developing a “sustainable finance taxonomy” — a guideline to define what counts as green investments, and what does not, that could help redirect financial investments into sustainable projects. He also appeared frustrated with the lack of progress out of Finance Canada on this file.
“Something you've written about a number of times in the National Observer, and I think have rightly deplored, is how slow Canada was to move on this,” he said, referring to the taxonomy. “I think with Mark the pace is going to seriously accelerate.”
The taxonomy initiative has been delayed for years, with little to show for its efforts so far. Multiple sources familiar with the file told Canada’s National Observer, that Freeland’s office was responsible for the delay because she wanted LNG to count as a “transition” aligned investment. But LNG is a fossil fuel, and climate scientists are clear there is no room in the global carbon budget for any new fossil fuel production if the world is going to limit global warming to 1.5C as required by the Paris Agreement.
Segal said the current federal government made some progress with its climate policy, but the financial sector’s role in the climate crisis has largely been ignored.
“It seems that the Finance Ministry has avoided moving forward on climate related financial policy because they know it would be effective in shifting investments away from polluting industries into climate solutions,” she said.
That may be one reason why some Liberals who care about climate change are choosing to back Carney over Freeland.
Keeping momentum
Guilbeault said one of his priorities has been to talk to the three main candidates (Carney, Freeland, and House Leader Karina Gould) to offer each of them advice on what should be in their platforms. Regardless of who wins, Liberals must keep their momentum on climate action, he said.
Progress has been slow, but is happening. In 2023, the most recent year data is available, shows the country’s emissions declined one per cent from the previous year. Skyrocketing oil and gas emissions are undermining progress in other sectors. Previously, Guilbeault has said the fact emissions are falling while the economy grows is proof the Liberal climate strategy is working, even if much work remains.
Canada’s 2030 emission reduction target is to slash 40 to 45 per cent of pollution from 2005 levels — and the country remains far off track, down only nine per cent. With Carney and Freeland, the two front runners for Liberal leader, signalling they will abandon the consumer carbon price if they win, the challenge of meeting that goal will only be steeper.
Carney declined an interview request, and did not return a request for comment asking what policies he would implement to make up for ditching the carbon price. But Guilbeault said the two have spoken about this.
“He said if we remove something from the equation of our arsenal of tools to fight climate change, we need to find something at least equivalent in terms of reducing pollution,” Guilbeault said. “It's not my place to speak for him on his behalf, he will say what he has to say when he feels it's appropriate, but I have spoken with him and I know he understands that.”
Comments
What is is Mark Carney's position on electoral reform, a national citizens assembly and proportional representation?
Great question. I hope he puts electoral reform in his platform.
On climate, if you watch some of the lengthy interviews or read his book (I got only part ways....), he is all about pushing hard to accommodate the energy transition which he sees as inevitable. His view is, of course, from the financial and investment world, not the activist world. In his world view he sees a huge amount of financial resources already lining up to back renewables and clean tech, and has cited stats that indicate clean energy is heading up in a steep curve as fossil fuels are levelling off.
He is also very well informed about climate risk and has had many discussions with big insurance firms about that risk, something their action of pulling coverage for areas prone to increasing drought and storms puts the lie to deniers, doubters and delayers, like Poilievre.
He is one if the most articulate people to ever enter politics, but yes, narratives on finance instead of trench fighting will not connect with all activists. His advisors need to de-elite him and put him in coveralls driving a back hoe, pushing a broom or flipping burgers multiple times.
Put another way, someone speaking chablis will travel a lot further if he learned to speak draft beer.