Ecojustice (Canada’s largest environmental law charity) explains that choosing between a healthy environment and a strong economy is a flawed lens through which we’ve been conditioned to view the challenges Canada faces when it comes to industrial development, protecting the well-being of communities, and preserving our natural heritage. A healthy environment supports a sustainable economy and vice-versa.

Despite Canada’s pledge to achieve net zero emissions by 2050 in accordance with the Paris Agreement, Ecojustice persists in taking legal action against fossil fuel projects that undermine this objective. That’s why Ecojustice has launched a new push to bring financial institutions, pension plans, financial crown corporations, and large federally incorporated companies in line with emissions targets, including a federal investigation into greenwashing. In funding fossil fuels, Indigenous rights may be violated or environmental damage enabled. Since the signing of the Paris Agreement, Greenpeace has stated that six Canadian banks have invested over $1 trillion in fossil fuel companies (justified as essential to economic growth). All Canadian banks have pledged to reduce financed emissions to zero by 2050. Federal legislation is needed to regulate this financing without delay.

Four additional conflicts between climate mitigation and the economy are discussed below. Ecojustice believes it’s well within the federal government’s authority to regulate plastics as toxic substances under Canada’s Environmental Protection Act. A coalition of North American industry corporations has filed lawsuits to block Canada’s recent efforts to curb plastic pollution. Single-use Plastics Prohibition Regulations have a target of zero plastic waste by 2030. As of 2023, prohibiting the manufacture, import, and sale of single-use plastic checkout bags, cutlery, plastic food service ware, ring carriers, stir sticks, and straws is meant to support the environment over economy-related pollution.

Canada is now developing a standardized registry to improve knowledge of plastic waste, value recovery, and pollution across Canada. This will support future government compliance promotion and enforcement of polluter gaps in the plastics value chain.

There is serious debate on whether some greenhouse gas reduction strategies are the right economic investments to help the environment. For example, the IISD States Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) is viewed as expensive, energy-intensive, unproven at scale, and have limited impact on emissions resulting from downstream use. The IISD reports that public and private investment should instead prioritize cost-effective, near-term, and proven solutions, such as renewables, to reduce emissions in the oil and gas sector. Federal regulations such as methane regulations currently underway are the start of more beneficial legislation and the ongoing discussion to end fossil fuel subsidies.

Another debate includes Clean Technica’s (a cleantech news source) statement that “small modular reactors won’t achieve economies of manufacturing scale, won’t be faster to construct, forego efficiency of vertical scaling, won’t be cheaper, aren’t suitable for remote or brownfield coal sites, still face huge security costs, will be costly and slow to decommission, and still require liability insurance caps.” 100% renewable energy has more benefits, being universally available and not monopolized.  By 2030, 90%, and in the long-term 100%, of Canada’s electricity will be generated from renewable and non-emitting resources for federal buildings as Canada’s commitment to the UN’s Sustainability Goals. This should be expanded to address all buildings to support the environment and economy better.

Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. (CMHC) determined last fall that an additional 3.5 million homes are needed by 2030 to restore affordability through the help of the government and the private sector. The federal government has a policy for fast-tracking home building, including waiving GST from new rental construction and rolling out a $4-billion Housing Accelerator Fund (launched in March 2023) to help municipalities move forward with construction. Across Canada, rents have risen sharply, and home prices have soared. “CMHC is looking for policy solutions to increase supply by all levels of government but also whether the private sector can improve how they produce: are there productivity gains, more efficiencies, better technologies that can be used, better materials?” says Aled AbIorwerth, CMHC deputy chief economist. Affordable, smaller net zero homes are the answer. Higher costs are making building less profitable, which could lead to less supply in the future.

This Post was submitted by Climate Scorecard Canada Country Manager Diane Szoller.