In an era when we often lament polarized politics, it’s worth celebrating when consensus emerges on a singularly important policy issue. To wit, this is our first federal election where the campaign platforms of five of the top six parties propose actions to accelerate the scale and pace of efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in Canada.
Each would maintain an increasing carbon price for large greenhouse gas emitters including fossil-fueled power plants. They all want more electricity production from our abundant renewable energy resources, and more sharing of it between regions. And they’ve all proposed initiatives that would drive electrification in sectors currently powered mainly by other energy sources, including passenger vehicle transportation and industrial hydrogen production.
This high-level consensus represents important progress. But whatever government takes office after the election will need to move quickly to implement and expand upon these commitments if Canada is to successfully meet its emission reduction targets.
Renewable electricity must be at the core of these efforts.
Read the full op-ed in pdf here or web version here.