Canada would support international deadlines to eliminate coal and fossil fuel subsidies, Steven Guilbeault says

By Alex BallingallOttawa Bureau
Fri., Nov. 12, 2021

OTTAWA—Canada says it would support the addition of deadlines to eliminate coal power and government supports for the fossil fuel sector in the final deal at the United Nations climate summit in Scotland, as negotiations aimed at preventing the catastrophic extremes of climate change dragged past the scheduled conclusion of the conference on Friday.

Speaking on the last scheduled day of the COP26 conference in Glasgow, Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault said the Canadian delegation is pushing for a “forceful” deal that will ensure actions to reduce greenhouse gas emissions are strong enough to restrain the increase of average global temperature increases to 1.5 C by the end of the century.

Scientists from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) have said the world has already warmed 1.1 C, and that further increases will lead to more damaging consequences like rising sea levels and stronger floods, droughts, storms and wildfires.

The primary goal of the summit is to ensure it remains possible to limit warming to 1.5 C, though efforts to strike a deal hit stumbling blocks this week. More than 190 participating countries continued talks late into the night on Friday, with ongoing debate over several issues. These include: how much money rich countries will provide poorer nations to deal and account for the damages of climate change; rules for trading credits for emissions reductions between different countries; a call to further increase emissions targets by the end of next year; and a demand for countries to speed-up plans to phase out coal power and subsidies for fossil fuels.

That last point sparked objections from climate campaigners and some participating countries after the latest draft agreement — published Friday morning — had updated language that referred only to “unabated” coal power and “inefficient” fossil fuel subsidies.


Tina Stege, the climate envoy from the Marshall Islands, said the final deal must include strong language on fossil fuels and a clear demand to eliminate “all” government supports for coal, oil and gas.

“Fossil fuel subsidies are paying for our own destruction,” she told the conference Friday afternoon.

Asked about the new language around coal power and fossil fuel subsidies, Guilbeault acknowledged concerns about the terminology but did not criticize it. Instead, he pointed to Canada’s own pledge to phase out coal power by 2030 and said Canada would be “very comfortable” with a final deal that included the same deadline for all countries.

He also said Canada would agree to a joint timeline to eliminate fossil fuel subsidies, as it has promised to eliminate “inefficient” fossil fuel subsidies by 2023. That pledge doesn’t include the billions of dollars that Crown corporations like Export Development Canada still provide to the domestic oil and gas sector every year, although Guilbeault said Friday that it would cover government subsidies that increase fossil fuel production in Canada.

The United States, meanwhile, urged participating countries not to weaken the current draft of the deal. U.S. climate envoy John Kerry told the conference that the U.S. supports the language around eliminating coal power and fossil fuel subsidies.

“To avoid the worst consequences of the climate crisis, we have to act now,” Kerry said.

“How could we possibly in 2021, knowing what the evidence is, be wishy-washy on that subject? Those subsidies have to go.”

He also defended a provision that calls for countries to “revisit and strengthen” their 2030 emissions targets by the end of next year — something Canada says should only apply to countries that haven’t upgraded their targets since 2015.

The IPCC says annual emissions from the entire world need to fall to 45 per cent below 2010 levels by 2030 to limit warming to 1.5 C.

Canada’s current target — updated earlier this year — is to slash emissions by at least 40 per cent over the next nine years, a goal the federal government argues is consistent with a 1.5 C pathway.

“It is our north star. This is what we’re here for, and Canada has been very supportive of a text that is very strong on 1.5 degrees Celsius,” Guilbeault told reporters Friday.

Climate campaigners in Glasgow this week, however, have decried what they describe as a lack of ambition and urgency shown in the drafts of the final deal so far. A report published by the Climate Action Tracker consortium determined current targets are too weak to achieve what’s necessary by 2030 to maintain a pathway to 1.5 C. And on Friday, a group called Friends of the Earth urged countries to strengthen the deal so that countries commit to phasing out all fossil fuels — not just coal.

“We need to keep, not just the coal, but the oil and gas, safe in the ground,” Mary Church, head of campaigns for Friends of the Earth Scotland, told reporters in Glasgow.

Catherine Abreu, executive director of the Canadian organization Destination Zero, also denounced how the latest text, which she said was watered down with “weasel words” around the phasing out of coal power and fossil fuel subsidies.

Another point of contention in the latter hours of the conference involved the failure to rally promised amounts of money from richer countries to help the developing world deal with climate change. Canada was tapped, along with Germany, to try to raise $100 billion in “climate finance” for developing countries, a level that was promised in 2009 to be achieved in 2020.

However, that threshold is now expected to be met three years late, in 2023, a fact that was noted with “concern” and “deep regret” in the draft deal published Friday. The draft called on countries to “at least double” the collective financing to help developing countries adapt to climate change.

Canada has already promised to double its planned contributions to help developing countries deal with climate to $5.3 billion over the next five years. Guilbeault’s office has said 40 per cent of this money will be earmarked for adaptation, helping poorer countries upgrade their infrastructure to better withstand the realities of the warming world.

But countries such as Belize, Tuvalu and Ecuador say this money for adaptation is not enough, and that developing nations need funding for “loss and damage” they have already experienced from the impacts of climate change. The Friday draft deal included a section that acknowledged this need and urged developed countries to increase financing in this area.

Asked about “loss and damage” on Friday, Guilbeault said he doesn’t expect “new funding mechanisms” to be created but expressed confidence that an agreement can be reached.

Alex Ballingall is an Ottawa-based reporter covering federal politics for the Star.